Sunday, April 06, 2008 "There Is A Difference"

Sunday, April 06, 2008

"There Is A Difference"

This Week: There Is A Difference, but first some encouragement from Julie.

From Julie's Keyboard:



Pressing Toward the Mark...... For Higher Ground.....

We see folks everyday of our lives that would tell us that they really wish they could grow more in their relationship with God. Yet the admission is that there are just too many things going on in life to cause a distraction. Granted this is true. If we're going to let life all around us be a distraction, then most likely that's where we'll remain.

Life and it's issues will happen in spite of whatever we determine to make the focal point for ourselves. However, if we can take an approach based on what we've been given as guidance for living from God's Word, then we travel that road of rest and security in the finished work of His Son, Jesus Christ. He said His "yoke is easy and His burden is light." This information followed a call to "Come" to Him. Sounds good doesn't it? Most of us want the easy way out.

At best, the most we can be is a yielded vessel in the hands of the Potter. If we haven't become that fitted vessel, at least we can remain pliable clay until the Potter gets the proper finish for His vessel. Maybe we're struggling getting all the results we'd like to see from our prayers and the things we believe we have been promised according to God's Word. Maybe well meaning Christians are making sure we know that we should be getting different results in our lives to situations "If we just had enough faith!" I know you've heard that one.

Anyway, when we find out for ourselves what is ours through Him, no one can take that away. It matters not who puts their twist of interpretation on anything if it doesn't line up with what He has given us by His Word through the Spirit. I was encouraged this week while visiting with a very dear friend that had this very principle working in her own life and family. When we find His place of rest, we can trust Him through storm or flood, through sickness or disease, through every trial and testing, and relinquish full control of any circumstance to Him. We can then detemine to make faith based choices in our lives day by day, based upon His Word. What a combination for victory!

In the words of a well anointed song...

"I'm pressing on the upward way,

New heights I'm gaining everyday.

Still praying as I onward bound.

Lord plant my feet on higher ground."

Scripture Ref.

Matt. 11:28-30"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Philipians 3:13-14 "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."

Have a blessed week,

Julie
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There Is A Difference




Last week in dealing with the Electoral College I received some feed back concerning the popular vote and the people making the choice. It does sound good, everyone’s vote counting that is. But I’m still not convinced that our Founders didn’t know what they were doing when they chose the Representative Government over a Democracy.

Yes, that’s right, we don’t have a Democracy, it’s called a Republic, that’s one in which the people chose individuals to represent them and their interests. I know all we hear today is the word Democracy, I wonder why that is? Are we just ignorant of it or is there a motive behind it? I’ll leave that to your own discernment. But the point I want to make here is that there is a difference and our Founders were well aware of it.

Oh’ by the way, Democracy is a vote by majority rule (Popular Vote). Also, I might note here that our Founders chose the Biblical view of Government by choosing a Republic, it is ordained in the Bible as God’s way of Government. Again we see our foundation of Government being laid in the Faith of our Founders. The people in Bible times rejected it in favor of Monarchies, so I suppose we can too if we choose.

But the authority rests not in my personal views, or for that matter in the views of our Senators and Congressmen, but in the words and thoughts of our Founders. So having said that, lets look at how those who laid the foundation of Government on which we stand view their choice.

The Constitution is nicely balanced with the federative and popular principles; the Senate are the guardians of the former, and the House of Representatives of the latter; and any attempts to destroy this balance, under whatever specious names or pretences they may be presented, should be watched with a jealous eye. - - - -The Debates and Proceedings in Congress, supra note 8, p. 130, James Hillhouse, December, 1803.

The principle of the Constitution, of election by electors, is certainly preferable to all others. . . . [because] Pennsylvania, Virginia, Massachusetts, and New York, may combine; they may say to the other [smaller] States, we will not vote for your man. . . . [or] the agricultural will be arrayed against the mercantile; the South against the East; the seaboard against the inland. - - - - The Debates and Proceedings in Congress, supra note 8, p. 130, James Hillhouse, December, 1803.

In our complex system of polity, the public will, as a source of authority, may be the will of the people as composing one nation, or the will of the States in their distinct and independent capacities; or the federal will as viewed, for example, through the presidential electors, representing in a certain proportion both the nation and the States.14

But what about the Popular vote (Democracy)?
“Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have, in general, been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.” - - - - James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, James Madison,The Federalist on the New Constitution, #10, James Madison.
“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.“ - - - - John Adams, The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States, Charles Francis Adams, editor (Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1851), Vol. VI, p. 484, to John Taylor on April 15, 1814.
“A democracy is a volcano which conceals the fiery materials of its own destruction. These will produce an eruption and carry desolation in their way.” - - - - Fisher Ames,Works of Fisher Ames (Boston: T. B. Wait & Co., 1809), p. 24, Speech on Biennial Elections, delivered January, 1788.
“The known propensity of a democracy is to licentiousness [excessive license] which the ambitious call, and ignorant believe to be, liberty.” - - - - Fisher Ames,Works, p. 384, “The Dangers of American Liberty,” February 1805. Fisher Ames, a framer of the bill of rights.
“We have seen the tumults of democracy terminate . . . as [it has] everywhere terminated, in despotism. . . . Democracy! savage and wild. Thou who wouldst bring down the virtuous and wise to thy level of folly and guilt.” - - - - Gouverneur Morris, signer and penman of the constitution
“The experience of all former ages had shown that of all human governments, democracy was the most unstable, fluctuating, and short-lived.” - - - - John Quincy Adams
“A simple democracy . . . is one of the greatest of evils.” - - - - Benjamin Rush, signer of the declaration
“In democracy . . . there are commonly tumults and disorders. . . . Therefore a pure democracy is generally a very bad government. It is often the most tyrannical government on earth.” - - - - Noah Webster, responsible for article i, section i, ¶ 8 of the constitution
“Pure democracy cannot subsist long nor be carried far into the departments of state — it is very subject to caprice and the madness of popular rage.” - - - - John Witherspoon, signer of the declaration
“It may generally be remarked that the more a government resembles a pure democracy the more they abound with disorder and confusion.” - - - - Zephaniah Swift, author of America’s first legal text
Samuel White (a military general and a U. S. Senator under President Thomas Jefferson) summarized the framers convictions about the superiority of a republic over a democracy when he declared:
“The people watch their servants with a jealous eye. If they err at all, it is on . . . the safe side. . . . [W]hat we have most to fear to our government and our liberties must come . . . from the licentiousness of democracy. This is what republican governments have forever to guard against; this is the vortex in which they are most likely to be swallowed up. God grant it may never be the case with ours; I fear nothing else.” - - - - The Debates and Proceedings in Congress, supra note 8, p. 151, Samuel White, December 1803.

So convinced were the framers of the superiority of a republic over a democracy that Article IV of the Constitution requires that every State maintain a republican — as opposed to a democratic — form of government. The electoral college helps maintains a federal, republican system of government, for in the American federal structure, important political powers are reserved to the States as well as to the people. As William C. Kimberling of the FEC’s Office of Election Administration argues:

Indeed, if we become obsessed with government by popular majority as the only consideration, should we not then abolish the Senate which represents States regardless of population? Should we not correct the minor distortions in the House (caused by districting and by guaranteeing each State at least one Representative) by changing it to a system of proportional representation? This would accomplish “government by popular majority” and guarantee the representation of minority parties, but it would also demolish our federal system of government. If there are reasons to maintain State representation in the Senate and House as they exist today, then surely these same reasons apply to the choice of president. - - - - William C. Kimberling (August 10, 2000). Origins and History of the Electoral College. Supra note 23.
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