Supreme Law of the Land

Friday, January 27, 2006

Supreme Law of the Land

From Julie's Key Board:

Seed, time, and harvest......

"Are the things that are oppressing us today, the harvest of what we planted yesterday?" ----- unknown author.
Galatians 6:7& 8 "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting."
Have a blessed week!
Julie

This week:
"Supreme Law of the Land" by David and Julie
Oswald Chambers quote: from My Utmost for His Highest



Article. VI. Paragraph II. Of the United States Constitution reads: This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.

Pursuance: the continuance of something begun with a view to its completion
Personal Note: Just in the last few years I have begun to realize the importance of our Constitution. Forgive me, but for most of my life I gave this Document little thought. It just never occurred to me that the very fact I was able to go shopping, attend church, work at my career, enjoy my family, and just live life in general as we know it here in the United States, all rested upon this Document “This Constitution.”
This Document sustains the greatest experience of freedom that man has ever known. How blessed I am to have never known anything else, but having not known anything else leaves me with a tendency to assume it was always this way and will always be this way.

I am beginning to understand the maintenance that this experience requires. It will not continue without the protection of the principles that have been laid at our feet. That is why I study, that is why I write this notes and share them with you. Our freedom and the freedom of our posterity depends upon our faithfulness to “This Constitution.”
That brings me to this weeks thought, “This Constitution . . . shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby; . . .” Our Legislature can’t even make a law in “Pursuance thereof” unless it falls within the bounds of “This Constitution.”

This is why I am troubled at the view many of our lawmakers take, and especially the views of those who sit on our highest courts. Thomas Edison declared: "The strength of the Constitution, lies in the will of the people to defend it." This bears witness with Thomas Jefferson who stated: "The Constitution of most of our states (and of the United States) assert that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed and that they are entitled to freedom of person, freedom of religion, freedom of property, and freedom of press." ---- Thomas Jefferson.

I am beginning to understand the responsibility that has been handed to us. I am just beginning to understand why so many have given their lives and their fortunes to defend and preserve “This Constitution”

It’s foundation is sure because it’s roots run deep into the religious heart of our people. It is a product of minds and hearts that had been fashioned by the love of scripture. The Judeo-Christian faith gave birth to the principles that took form in the laws of this land and are as just and unchangeable as the word that gave them birth.

This leaves us with a governing document that can be trusted where man cannot. Thomas Jefferson understood this when he state, "In matters of Power, let no more be heard of confidence in men, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution."----- Thomas Jefferson.

It is imperative that this Constitution remain the supreme law of the land. Yet we find Judges sitting on the United States Supreme Court who have taken a different view.

In a speech to the Southern Center for International Studies in Atlanta, Georgia, on October 28, 2003, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor said of their decision in Lawrence: “Solicitude [concern] for the views of foreign and international courts also appeared in last term’s decision in Lawrence v. Texas. In ruling that consensual homosexual activity in one’s home is constitutionally protected, the Supreme Court relied in part on a series of decisions from the European Court of Human Rights. I suspect that with time, we will rely increasingly on international and foreign law resolving what now appears to be domestic issues, as we both appreciate more fully the ways in which domestic issues have international dimensions, and recognize the rich resources available to us in the decisions of foreign courts.”

What happened to Article VI. Of the Constitution? “This Constitution . . . shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby; . . .”

"If in the opinion of the people the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates, but let there be no change by usurpation; for though this in one instance may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed."
----- George Washington.

"The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government -- lest it come to dominate our lives and interests." ----- Patrick Henry.

"On every question of construction [of the Constitution] let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed." -----Thomas Jefferson. Letter to William Johnson, June 12, 1823.

"Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters." ------ Daniel Webster.

"The Constitution is a written instrument. As such, its meaning does not alter. That which it meant when it was adopted, it means now." ----- South Carolina v. United States, 199 U.S. 437, 448 (1905).
Some would say, “David, you are of that religious right group who wants to take us back into the past.” Well, that may fit, I don’t know! But I do believe this is a special nation with a special purpose. I do believe in the God of the Bible, and that this God and the principles of the Bible are the source of our freedom and liberty.

I believe the men who gave birth to this great nation and the documents that govern us were inspired by divine inspiration. I don’t believe that man outside of this can improve upon it. We are free, and being so, we can change this document into what ever form we choose, but I would argue that it is to be change by the people through the means to which it allows and not by some judges opinion!

I search myself often to see if I may have my own agenda, I hope I never succumb to such a thing. Just the reading of the words of our founders and the wisdom of our Constitution inspires me and challenges me to embrace the idea’s and principles upon which they rest! As I survey the world around me, I am left to wonder why we would look to anything else!

May God bless each of you,
David & Julie

"Never consider whether you are of use; but ever consider that you are not your own but His." ----- Oswald Chambers. During years 1911-1915.