Things have been a little rough at work. It isn’t easy to start a new career but I’m doing the best I can right now. Hopefully I will be able to stay on full time when my contract is up. Better start saving some money just in case… But its in the Lord’s hands either way. He knows what I need to support my family. I believe this job was a blessing from Him and that He will help me to keep it if it is His will.

According to the State Patrol, he was involved in a rush-hour crash on Interstate Hwy. 694 near Silver Lake Road in New Brighton. The State Patrol said troopers shot him with the Taser because he was uncooperative. He was breathing but unconscious when paramedics arrived, according to Allina Medical Transportation spokesman Tim Burke but was pronounced dead at Unity Hospital in Fridley.

Click here for the full story. Tasers are touted as a non-lethal alternative to guns and supposedly save hundreds of lives in instances where police would have otherwise resorted to deadly force. Are we to suppose that someone who becomes ‘uncooperative’ in a traffic incident is normally in danger of being shot? Police are routinely using Tasers to subdue people when ever the situation becomes uncomfortable or whenever the officers are having a hard time dealing with them, not in instances where they would have used deadly force in the past but may have resorted to forceful physical restraint. We need to seriously rethink the role of ‘non-lethal’ weapons in law enforcement or we will continue to see more and more of these senseless killings.

This is how the international bankers, or the ‘money trust’, control nations. The Federal Reserve ought to be demolished. Vote for Ron Paul in your state’s primary election so we can try to restore this nation to sound money principles.

 Many contend that Ron Paul, although an honest, plain-talking man, comes to the 2008 presidential campaign podium without a lot of achievement.  While in office, he hasn’t steer-headed proposed legislation into law, or galvanized broad-based support for this national agenda or that, or even been on board with most post-911 bills and actions.  For almost twenty years, he’s been a dedicated representative for his Texas District and has not a potpourri of achievements about which to boast on the presidential campaign trail.  Is this exactly true?  How could someone serve for so long, and have so little to show for it?

I won’t spoil it. Click here to read the rest. 

I want to take Your Word and shine it all around
But first help me just to live it, Lord
And when I’m doing well, help me to never seek the crown
For my reward is giving glory to You

I’ve always liked this song. We used to sing it at my church years ago, though we sing more traditional hymns these days. But I do have a problem with the last two lines there. Many people have the idea that it is wrong to seek rewards from Christ, that we should only serve Him out of love and that opportunity is reward enough in itself. There is nothing wrong with being motivated by His great love toward us, in fact we should be.

1 John 3:16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

But some have begun to teach that it is wrong for Christians to serve the Lord in humble expectation that He will reward His servants for their obedient service. They don’t deny that the Lord does reward his servants, but they think it seems a mercenary affair to be motivated by the desire to receive a crown or to reign with Christ. We must remember that we are even commanded to do just that.

Luke 6:22-23
22 Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake.
23 Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.

Luke 6:35 But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.

The hope of reward is something that the Bible tells us we must have if we would be found pleasing to God.

Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

There is a danger in downplaying the future reward. Paul tells us that we are in a race for a crown.

1 Corinthians 9:24-26
24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.
25 And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.
26 I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air:

How effective would a runner in a race be if he did not desire the victory? If his opponents were single minded in their focus on the crown, and he just ran for the love of running? He may put forth a good show, for a time, but he is likely to tire of the effort before the end, especially when you consider that this is a race that continues until you die or the Lord comes back! Paul kept his eye on that crown, and at the end of his ministry he tells us that he knows there is a crown laid up for him, because he ran a good race.

2 Timothy 4:7-8
7 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.

2 John 1:8 Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.

We should not imagine that it is enough just to enter the race. We must, like Paul, finish the course if we would have the crown. Please understand that salvation in eternity is a free gift, and you must be saved by believing on Christ before you can even begin to run the race. But there are things that God has in store for His children who will do His will that will doubtless be well worth the effort. Let us look forward to those rewards in earnest hope that He is willing to give them to us if we will trust Him and apply His grace in our lives to keep His commands and to live the lives that He has ordered for us to live.

TASER electronic stun guns are a form of torture that can kill, a UN committee has declared after several recent deaths in North America.

“The use of these weapons causes acute pain, constituting a form of torture,” the UN’s Committee against Torture said.

“In certain cases, they can even cause death, as has been shown by reliable studies and recent real-life events,” the committee of 10 experts said.

…

Portugal “should consider giving up the use of the Taser X26,” as its use can have a grave physical and mental impact on those targeted, which violates the UN’s Convention against Torture, the experts said.

It will be interesting to see if this has any impact on the US. It seems like we hear about a new Taser related death every few days.