Effective law maker

A Few of things law makers should ask before they create legislation.

Does the government have to be involved in this?
Can it be handled at a lower level?

How much does it cost?
How is it going to be paid for?

Can the legislation be enforced?
Will it impact a particular group?

Does the legislation fix the problem
or is it a bandaid?

Is the legislation temporary or permanent?

Agnostic

I'm agnostic
but I love Christ...

I am agnostic in the sense that I have a clear line drawn between what I know or what can be known
and what I believe.

What can be known defined as what is observable by many. What is testable and repeatable. Evidence. Data.
I don't have to know everything. I'm okay with uncertainty.

What I believe is separate from what I know. What I believe doesn't have to be verified. There doesn't have to be evidence.
It's a belief. If it was verifiable, it would be a fact...
And, I don't have to believe everything.
I seek like-minded people to confirm my beliefs.
I also seek others to question my beliefs.

Racism binds all

Is it time to look at how -isms oppress the very people they are supposed to benefit?

Privilege is given and can be taken away

When you give someone the false sense of superiority, can you afflict them and divert attention from the affliction?

Or cause them to believe their affliction is caused by those that are supposedly inferior?

Life 

Liberty

Property 

All being diverted. Covertly. Overtly. 

The Fruits of the Spirit

Galatians 5

1 For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

2 Listen! I, Paul, am telling you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you.
3 Once again I testify to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obliged to obey the entire law.
4 You who want to be justified by the law have cut yourselves off from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.
5 For through the Spirit, by faith, we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.
6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; the only thing that counts is faith working through love.

7 You were running well; who prevented you from obeying the truth?
8 Such persuasion does not come from the one who calls you.
9 A little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough.
10 I am confident about you in the Lord that you will not think otherwise. But whoever it is that is confusing you will pay the penalty.
11 But my friends, why am I still being persecuted if I am still preaching circumcision? In that case the offence of the cross has been removed.
12 I wish those who unsettle you would castrate themselves!

13 For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another.
14 For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’
15 If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.


16 Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh.
17 For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want.
18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law.
19 Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness,
20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions,
21 envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.


22 By contrast,
the fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy,
peace,
patience,
kindness,
generosity,
faithfulness,
23 gentleness,
and self-control.
There is no law against such things.
24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.
26 Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another.

The spirt of the Lord shall rest on him

Isaiah 11

A shoot shall come out from the stock of Jesse,
and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
2 The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
3 His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.
He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
or decide by what his ears hear;
4 but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
5 Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist,
and faithfulness the belt around his loins.


6 The wolf shall live with the lamb,
the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
and a little child shall lead them.
7 The cow and the bear shall graze,
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,
and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.
9 They will not hurt or destroy
on all my holy mountain;
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.

10 On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.
11 On that day the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that is left of his people, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Ethiopia,[a] from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea.

12 He will raise a signal for the nations,
and will assemble the outcasts of Israel,
and gather the dispersed of Judah
from the four corners of the earth.
13 The jealousy of Ephraim shall depart,
the hostility of Judah shall be cut off;
Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah,
and Judah shall not be hostile towards Ephraim.
14 But they shall swoop down on the backs of the Philistines in the west;
together they shall plunder the people of the east.
They shall put forth their hand against Edom and Moab,
and the Ammonites shall obey them.
15 And the Lord will utterly destroy
the tongue of the sea of Egypt;
and will wave his hand over the River
with his scorching wind;
and will split it into seven channels,
and make a way to cross on foot;
16 so there shall be a highway from Assyria
for the remnant that is left of his people,
as there was for Israel
when they came up from the land of Egypt.