Saturday, November 08, 2008 "Constitution" (just words?)

Saturday, November 08, 2008

"Constitution" (just words?)

First From Julie's Keyboard:

Talk! Talk! Talk! We get plenty of this lately. After all, we've just hurdled over another Presidential Election. It's what policticians do best. Isn't it? In light of all the things that have passed the lips of any of them, how many will actually make it to fruition? Who knows?

It's quite easy to pick on political figures in times like these. Yet, what about our own responsibilities with words? How are we doing with those powerful containers that pass through our mouths?

If Jesus meant what He said (and I'm sure He did), there will be a lot of accounting some day for everyone with a mouth that can speak. If we really get the thought of this concept going on in our minds, it can be somewhat concernining.

It's easy to realize the dangers when someone in the leadership positions of life makes promises that often will not make production. But, so often in our disappointments and frustrations with the way things go in life around us, we'd do well to check the chatty flow coming from beneath our own noses too.

After spending some fun time with our young son and our grandkids together this weekend, I was reminded of the childish ways and talk, its innocence and quick forgiveness if necessary. Maybe there's few things sillier than a grandparent trying to cut up and fit in to their lingo. But, it gives them something to laugh about and discuss later.

Though our children be in prepatory stages for an adult and difficult world, it's certainly amazing how much we can continue to learn and be reminded of when spending time with them. Jesus loved them, pure and simple. He said, "Suffer them and forbid them not to come unto me."

There isn't time to let our thoughts idle away and cruise through a life of "whatever will be, will be." We musn't spray words around simply because we're not fulfilled unless our mouth is running. We must take good thinking. We must speak well chosen things. This isn't my message. It was His. The message is to me. Not everything that pops into my head needs to be set to words. Sometimes, it needs to be dealt with and cast aside.

Then sometimes difficult things need to be said, yet with much accuracy and clarity. He gives us the grace and disposition for doing all things well if we ask Him.

Thank you for letting me share a message for me with you today. I certainly thank Him for His rich grace and mercy.

Scripture References:

Matthew 12:36-37 "But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.
For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned."
Proverbs 18:21 "Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof."
Philippians 4:8 "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things."
Luke 18:16-17 "But Jesus called them unto Him, and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.
Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein."

Have a blessed week,
Julie

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"Constitution" (just words?)

Wow! Julie got us with that word on words above didn’t she? She has a great understanding from scripture concerning the power of the words we speak into our lives each day.

There was a time I think we put more weight upon the words we speak, it use to be that a hand shake was all that was needed to secure an agreement over the words that had been spoken.

That was all that was needed because the words held the power of the character within the person. We seem to have lost that today as we have to have contracts to secure the words that should stand on their own, but in these days they cannot.

Julie mentioned our recent election and in our pervious post I gave my congratulations to President Elect Obama. I also mentioned to my regret I was unable to support him in his campaign. That was much to do with his words, one very important area being the judges he said he would appoint, to which I took him at his word.

That concerned me I suppose the most, as all the other areas I had concern with will be dealt with again in 4 or maybe 8 years, but these judges and their influence will be with me for the rest of my life, and by then it may be that where they take our country could redefine our whole culture.

He has stated the judges he appoints will tend to interpret the Constitution in what some call a living Constitutional view, being that it evolves with the times in which we live and the meaning changes as culture changes. That sounds reasonable unless you study what our Founders intended, which was a very strict adherence to the Constitutional code and Amendments to be made only by the ascribed methods.

Our Constitution is not just words, it defines us, if it evolves and changes then so do we. It could very well be what we are today as a people will not be what we are tomorrow, the term American would mean something completely different than it does today.

I will surely write my representatives in Congress and strongly urge then to resist any appointment other than a strict Constitutionest.

I am an American, I am proud to be an American, it is one of my greatest honors, and it becomes more so as I discover more and more about what an American is. I discover that by searching out our history and acquainting myself with our governing documents and how our Founders interpreted their meaning. This tells me what it means to be an American and helps enable me to identify a none American idea when it rises up in our mist.

Our Constitution, just words? Lets turn our ears to the words of our Founders once again for guidance;

NOAH WEBSTER (1758-1843)

Was among the first to call for the Constitutional Convention and was responsible for the copyright and patent protection clause found in Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution. Furthermore, Webster was a master of word usage, learning over twenty languages and compiling America’s first dictionary that defined some 70,000 words.

Webster explained:

"In the lapse of two or three centuries, changes have taken place which in particular passages . . . obscure the sense of the original languages . . . The effect of these changes is that some words are . . . being now used in a sense different from that which they had . . . and thus present wrong signification or false ideas. Whenever words are understood in a sense different from that which they had when introduced . . . mistakes may be very injurious."Noah Webster, The Holy Bible . . . With Amendments of the Language (New Haven: Durrie & Peck, 1883), p. iii.

THOMAS JEFFERSON

Thomas Jefferson admonished Supreme Court Justice William Johnson:

"On every question of construction, 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, Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, From the papers of Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Randolph, editor (Boston: Gray and Bowen, 1830), Vol IV, p. 373, to Judge William Johnson on June 12 1823.

JAMES MADISON

James Madison also declared:

I entirely concur in the propriety of resorting to the sense in which the Constitution was accepted and ratified by the nation. In that sense alone it is the legitimate Constitution. And if that be not the guide in expounding it, there can be no security for a consistent and stable, more than for a faithful, exercise of its powers . . . What a metamorphosis would be produced in the code of law if all its ancient phraseology were to be taken in its modern sense." James Madison, The Writings of James Madison, Gaillard Hunt, editor (New York and London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1910), Vol. IX, p. 191, to Henry Lee on June 25, 1824.

JUSTICE JAMES WILSON (1742-1798)

James Wilson was a distinguished Founder; he was one of only six who signed both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution; he was the second most active member of the Constitutional Convention, speaking 168 times on the floor of the Convention; he was a law professor; he was nominated by President George Washington as an original Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court; and in 1792 he was co-author of America’s first legal commentaries on the Constitutional

Justice James Wilson explained:

"The first and governing maxim in the interpretation of a statute is to discover the meaning of those who made it." James Wilson, The works of the Honorable James Wilson, Bird Wilson , editor (Philadelphia: Bronson and Chauncey, 1804), Vol. I, p. 14, from "Lectrues on Law Delivered in the College of Philadelphia; Introductory Lecture: Of the study of the Law in the United States."

JUSTICE JOSEPH STORY (1779-1845)

Joseph Story was the son of one of the "Indians" at the Boston Tea Party"; was the founder of Harvard Law School; was called the "foremost of American legal writers" and was nominated to the Supreme Court by President James Madison.

Justice Joseph Story explained:

"The first and fundamental rule in the interpretation of all instruments [documents] is to construe them according to the sense of the terms and the intention of the parties." Joseph story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (Boston: Hilliard, Gray, and Company, 1833), Vol. III, p. 383, 400.

May God bless each you,

David