Are Values Important to you???

I, among others, have been very concerned about the direction our country is taking in its basic thinking. There is a proven fact that basically says “You are what you think”. This means as one goes through life, the way one perceives life, changes the way one acts out ones life.
To try to illustrate this point we will take one value we hope we all adhere to. It is wrong to murder a human being. If that is a value one wants to stand by when one sees or hears of a murder of an innocent person, one becomes upset and appalled at the action of the perpetrator. One becomes more appalled if it is someone one admires; more appalled if it is someone one is close to; and more appalled if it is part of ones family.
How firmly one values are set one’s mind by the environment in which one lives. If the environment tolerates execution for crimes committed one’s mind changes the word murder to execution, therefore it is not longer murder. If an enemy is assassinated one again redefines murder to assassination. If an unborn baby is killed an taken from the mother’s whom for no valid medical reason, one’s mind changes the word murder to abortion. Therefore while our values may be absolute society’s values, which control our environment, may not be tied to anything that is absolute.
We believe our values are tied to the Ten Commandments God gave Moses as described in the Hold Bible, and just as the 12 tribes defiled each of the commandments, our wonderful nation of the United States of America defile these same values.
The situation described above is the reason for the writing. Since our four fathers were so interested in following through with the values set for the in the Holy Bible they placed reminders of those values in the Constitution of the United States and in different locations around its capital. They are not hidden but well placed in very obvious locations.
Further we start every session of Congress with a prayer to God, the creator of the universe, and until the twentieth century swore an oath to service the nation to almighty God saying so help me God. This is an excellent example of the digression of our values. The oath one gives is not swearing by God . One is asking God to help them follow the oath, because the bible doesn’t say to swear by anything, but just say yes or no.
From the evidence presented there is no doubt that the values presented in the Holy Bible are values this great country used to write, first the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America. After the Declaration of Independence of 1320 words was written thousands of Americans lost their lives by to putting the values represented in those words ahead of everything else.
After winning the Revolutionary War, which was not at all predictable, we wrote and passed the US Constitution and added the Bill of Rights to protect the values won. Then the same thing happened to us as happened to the Jews after God gave them the Ten Commandments. The “What if” movement began to slowly erode the values we fought for, and some values were just ignored.
The “What if” movement is easy to identify. On the surface it is very simple. The people agreed with the basic value by saying, “We understand that it is wrong to break this value, but what if the circumstances are; “we need this because.”
With this concept of logic we begin the micromanagement of our values. God laid the values out in very simple terms. Of course He knew that there would always be circumstances that we may have to deviate, but we should have to try to stick to the values as much as possible. Our laws a structured to keep honest people honest. They are not structured to make bad people behave.
Laws are not passed to teach people values. People inherently know right from wrong based on what God laid on their heart. For instance in our society in the United States, there is no person that does not know the Ten Commandments exist. They may not be able to recite them, but they know in their heart what they are.
While the new laws say the are reinforcing the Ten Commandments usually the new law gives some of the value to the commandment away. This is what happened to the Jews just after the Ten Commandments were given to Moses. They wrote hundreds of what if laws to the point that Jesus told them “You write laws that, even you, cannot keep.”
God gave us common sense to make decisions if we have to vary from the Ten Commandments.
We lie sometimes to keep from hurting someone’s feeling, but we don’t lie to protect society.
We steal a loaf of bread because we don’t what to starve, but we should not steal if we are too lazy to work.
This is the type of common sense we have to deal with law. Our laws are too harsh sometimes and not harsh enough other times. Usually that depends on one’s place in society and how much money one can spend to defend themselves. Sometimes, it just comes down to honor.
In a perfect world if one makes a mistake he just says, I’m sorry and makes an agreeable and amends. If someone intentionally makes a harmful action to another person, we have law to protect us. The key word here is intent.
For the average person what you intended to accomplish with one’s action has no bearing on one’s innocence or guilt , One does the crime and does the time, unless one has enough money to hire the best legal advice available.

Moving our values to the right or left is just not a good idea. When we move our values we a compromising our values given to us by God to adjust our values to those around us trying to make their life here on earth conform to earthly values that seem more convenient or easier to maintain.
This moving of values leads to crime, drugs, and unproductivity. In other words our contract with society is broken.
What is our contract with society you ask? Most of us get up in the morning awake in a home we didn’t build, a bed we didn’t make, eat breakfast with food we didn’t grow or raise, control warmth or cooling with power we didn’t make, are taught in school by someone else, work and are paid by someone else, and many other things necessary to live a good life. Every time we break our contract with society, society pays the cost.
Our laws should protect us from people breaking the contract we all have with society. The question gets to be, do our laws protect society or try to control society. If the contract with society exists we should try to bring persons that break the contract to a point of that reinforcing the values they broke.
Today we put lawbreakers in jail or prison for a period of time based on the offense they committed. The tells the offender that time served will rehabilitate their values. Often while they are incarcerated the only help they get for life after incarceration is from inmates that have less regard for good values that they have.
Therefore when the inmates are discharged from jail or prison, they fall into a life style values of their piers. If they were encouraged to learn a new skill or finish school while they were incarcerated the chances of becoming productive citizens would be greatly increased, therefore increasing the strength of the values we cherish.
How do we address this problem? We cannot do it all a once, but gradually over time by replacing the House and Senator members of state and local government that have abandoned their values for the love of power and money. it can be done.
The underlaying deeper concern about the last statement is that the citizens on the outside of the jail or prison are in the same boat. We are told by society that our contract with society doesn’t require all the values God placed in the bible. God gave us the Ten Commandments. The key word here is they are commandments and not just guide lines. With other teachings in the bible He elaborates on the Ten Commandments, but He never compromises any of them.
Society, on the other hand, compromises values usually due to the love of money and power. Having the control of money gives power to the greedy which usually negatively effects the poor, low income the most and the middle income citizens to a large extent.
The poor and low income citizens are living a hand to mouth life. Everything they earn goes to exitance. Their values are compromised because they feel life is just not fair. The middle income citizens are aware of the poor and low income, but sometimes believe they could let our of their dilemma if they just applied themselves and worked harder. They never look and the rich and ultra rich as the cause of the problem of poverty. They rather think that the rich and ultra rich are helping them maintain their wealth. Again their values have been adjusted by society.
Jesus said that the poor would always be with us. That statement seems to give us the idea the He said that and meant the poor should always be with us. God and Jesus loves everyone. They didn’t want anyone to be poor. Jesus was stating a fact; not a prediction. However, the middle class, the rich and the ultra rich make that as an excuse not to help the poor and low income to earn a proper living.
It is true that some of the poor and low income citizens are lazy. We can’t do anything about that, but most of the poor and low income citizens are not lazy and will work very hard, usually for little pay. This basically changes their values from the Ten Commandments to survive. Thereby contract with society is weakened once again.
It is evident that power and money feed pride. A Christian nation should not be prideful. A Christian nation should be humble. Each of our representatives and senator should be happy to serve the people that sent them to congress. Everyone that has been elected by the citizens or appointed by the citizens elected to serve should feel the same way.
A Christian nation should understand that God placed it in a strong position to live as an example of humility. The United States does what the angel predicted to the profit Daniel when he told Daniel a king would make treaties to deceive his enemies and do what he wanted to win.
We have treaties with Russia, Iran, China, and other countries that have not intention of complying with the agreements in the treaty. Unfortunately sometimes we sign treaties and we try to work around the agreements. Yes we let their values effect our values.
As a society we continue going down the path of least resistance rather than attempting to improve our values rather than dishonoring our values. Does our contract with society win when let;
• Pride, which is putting our place of birth, our race, our intelligence, our accomplishment,
• Power, which is given to us by those who need our leadership, and
• Wealth, which is their because due to birth, who we know, or hard work.
dictate how our values effect our contract with society?
The answer lies in you the citizen. Do you want to be known as a Christian Nation or not? Are values important to you? There is really no in-be-tween.