LOVE LITIGATING LAWYERS DAY
6The lawless were cowed by fear of him, and all evildoers were
dismayed. By his hand deliverance was happily achieved, 7and
he afflicted many kings. He gave joy to Jacob by his deeds, and his memory is
blessed forever.
Judas Maccabees was
a defender of the weak that were oppressed by renegades and by the kings of the
region. To understand this better let’s look at the words meaning.
1.
A
person who behaves in a rebelliously unconventional manner.
2.
Archaic a
person who abandons religion; an apostate.
How many of us have at times been
cowed by the fleshes weakness or the world; as professed by the media and given
in to false prophets that spout the culture of death. We must stand with the Church and not be cowed and show ourselves as
people trusting in God in the midst of troubles.
Saint Augustine, 354
–430 A.D. had something to say about the private storms in our lives. St.
Augustine was a philosopher and theologian who tells us, “Don't forget
the presence of Christ. When you have to listen to abuse, that means you are
being buffeted by the wind; when your anger is roused, you are being tossed by
the waves. So when the winds blow and the waves mount high, the boat is in
danger, your heart is imperiled, your heart is taking a battering. On hearing
yourself insulted, you long to retaliate; but the joy of revenge brings with it
another kind of misfortune—shipwreck. Why is this? Because Christ is asleep in
you. What do I mean? I mean you have forgotten His presence. Rouse him, then;
remember Him, let Him keep watch within you, pay heed to Him. Now what was your
desire? You wanted to get your own back. You have forgotten that when Christ
was being crucified, He said: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they
do. Christ, the sleeper in yourheart, had no desire for vengeance in his. Rouse
Him, then, call him to mind.” There will be encounters we cannot envision; cannot see for
they lie around the bend in the roads of our life. Sometimes it takes only the
ringing of the telephone to change an entire well-made plan, bringing us to
truths we hope we never hear such as the death of a beloved relative or the
news that someone we care deeply for has an incurable illness. There might be a
knock on the door that brings life-changing news that will break our
hearts. But it is in the midst of
uncertainty and trials, as we teeter on the brim of a chasm wondering what to
do, imploring God with weakening hope to come forth for us, that we can see we
are stronger than we thought. Through faith, we are able to pull
ourselves up from the edge of unspeakable hardship to keep ploughing forward on
our heaven bound journey. It is a time when we can understand and measure our
capacity to endure, to assess our strength and continue through life’s fiercest
turbulence. We look at those who are surviving terrible calamities and
adversities and we cannot understand how they persevere, how they can put one
foot in front of the other and move on, running toward a goal that others
cannot see. These are the people with great faith, who are willing to "let
go of the branch" and depend on Jesus Christ and His promises. “God
is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble. So we
will not fear when earthquakes come and the mountains crumble into the sea. Let
the oceans roar and foam. Let the mountains tremble as the waters surge!” -Psalm
46: 1-3.
Do not
let your faith be swallowed up by fear.
Do not wallow in self-pity, for Almighty God knows your circumstances and what
you are going through. Take your supplications to God, and find the
solace and comfort you need to overcome. Be always mindful that in the
middle of the violent storms that steal away your joy, batter your dreams, and
flatten your hopes, you will find the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ Who says "I
will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” -Hebrews 13:5 .
Love
Litigating Lawyers Day,
no matter how unpopular we generally consider them to be…or how unprincipled we
believe them to be we are to love them for the sake of Christ. #LoveLitigatingLawyersDay
Declaration of
Independence is in July and the Constitution is in September, let us once again
reflect on the marvelous principles underlying these two documents. The
following is a review of these principles together with a comment or a quote by
the Founders. Documentation may be found in The Five Thousand
Year Leap.
Principle 1–The
only reliable basis for sound government and just human relations is Natural
Law.
Natural law is
God’s law. There are certain laws which govern the entire universe, and just as
Thomas Jefferson said in the Declaration of Independence, there are laws which
govern in the affairs of men which are “the laws of nature and of nature’s
God.”
Principle 2–A free people cannot survive under a republican
constitution unless they remain virtuous and morally strong.
“Only a virtuous
people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have
more need of masters.” – Benjamin Franklin
Principle 3–The most promising method of securing a virtuous
people is to elect virtuous leaders.
“Neither the
wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness
of a people whose manners are universally corrupt. He therefore is the truest
friend to the liberty of his country who tries most to promote its virtue, and
who … will not suffer a man to be chosen into any office of power and trust who
is not a wise and virtuous man.” – Samuel Adams
Principle 4–Without
religion the government of a free people cannot be maintained.
“Of all the
dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and
morality are indispensable supports…. And let us with caution indulge the
supposition that morality can be maintained without religion.” – George
Washington
Principle 5–All
things were created by God, therefore upon him all mankind are equally dependent,
and to him they are equally responsible.
The American
Founding Fathers considered the existence of the Creator as the most
fundamental premise underlying all self-evident truth. They felt a person who
boasted he or she was an atheist had just simply failed to apply his or her
divine capacity for reason and observation.
Principle 6–All
mankind were created equal.
The Founders knew
that in these three ways, all mankind are theoretically treated as:
- Equal before God.
- Equal before the law.
- Equal in their rights.
- The Freedom to try.
- The Freedom to buy.
- The Freedom to sell.
- The Freedom to fail.
Principle 7–
The proper role of government is to protect equal rights, not provide equal
things.
The Founders
recognized that the people cannot delegate to their government any power except
that which they have the lawful right to exercise themselves.
Principle 8
– Mankind are endowed by God with certain unalienable rights.
“Those rights,
then, which God and nature have established, and are therefore called natural
rights, such as are life and liberty, need not the aid of human laws to be more
effectually invested in every man than they are; neither do they receive any
additional strength when declared by the municipal [or state] laws to be
inviolable. On the contrary, no human legislation has power to abridge or
destroy them, unless the owner [of the right] shall himself commit some act
that amounts to a forfeiture.” – William Blackstone
Principle 9 – To protect human
rights, God has revealed a code of divine law.
“The doctrines
thus delivered we call the revealed or divine law, and they are to be found
only in the Holy Scriptures. These precepts, when revealed, are found by
comparison to be really a part of the original law of nature, as they tend in
all their consequences to man’s felicity.” – William Blackstone
Principle 10–The
God-given right to govern is vested in the sovereign authority of the whole
people.
“The fabric of the
American empire ought to rest on the solid basis of the consent of the people.
The streams of national power ought to flow immediately from that pure,
original fountain of all legislative authority.” – Alexander Hamilton
Principle 11–The
majority of the people may alter or abolish a government which has become
tyrannical.
“Prudence, indeed,
will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light
and transient causes … but when a long train of abuses and usurpations …
evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it
is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for
their future security.” – Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence
Principle 12–The
United States of America shall be a republic.
“I pledge
allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic
or which it stands….”
Principle 13–A
Constitution should protect the people from the frailties of their rulers.
“If angels were to
govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be
necessary…. [But lacking these] you must first enable the government to control
the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.” – James
Madison
Principle 14–Life
and liberty are secure only so long as the rights of property are secure.
John Locke
reasoned that God gave the earth and everything in it to the whole human family
as a gift. Therefore, the land, the sea, the acorns in the forest, the deer
feeding in the meadow belong to everyone “in common.” However, the moment
someone takes the trouble to change something from its original state of
nature, that person has added his ingenuity or labor to make that change.
Herein lies the secret to the origin of “property rights.”
Principle 15–The
highest level of prosperity occurs when there is a free-market economy and a
minimum of government regulations.
Prosperity depends
upon a climate of wholesome stimulation with four basic freedoms in operation:
Principle 16–The
government should be separated into three branches.
“I call you to
witness that I was the first member of the Congress who ventured to come out in
public, as I did in January 1776, in my Thoughts on Government … in favor of a
government with three branches and an independent judiciary. This pamphlet, you
know, was very unpopular. No man appeared in public to support it but
yourself.” – John Adams
Principle 17–A
system of checks and balances should be adopted to prevent the abuse of power
by the different branches of government.
“It will not be
denied that power is of an encroaching nature and that it ought to be
effectually restrained from passing the limits assigned to it.” – James Madison
Principle 18 –The unalienable
rights of the people are most likely to be preserved if the principles of
government are set forth in a written Constitution.
The structure of
the American system is set forth in the Constitution of the United States and
the only weaknesses which have appeared are those which were allowed to creep
in despite the Constitution.
Principle 19–Only
limited and carefully defined powers should be delegated to government, all
others being retained by the people.
The Tenth
Amendment is the most widely violated provision of the bill of rights. If it
had been respected and enforced America would be an amazingly different country
than it is today. This amendment provides:
“The powers not
delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the
States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
Principle 20–Efficiency
and dispatch require that the government operate according to the will of the
majority, but constitutional provisions must be made to protect the rights of
the minority.
“Every man, by
consenting with others to make one body politic under one government, puts
himself under an obligation to every one of that society to submit to the
determination of the majority, and to be concluded [bound] by it.” – John Locke
Principle 21–Strong
local self-government is the keystone to preserving human freedom.
“The way to have
good and safe government is not to trust it all to one, but to divide it among
the many, distributing to every one exactly the functions he is competent [to
perform best]. – Thomas Jefferson
Principle 22–A
free people should be governed by law and not by the whims of men.
“The end of law is
not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom. For in all the
states of created beings, capable of laws, where there is no law there is no
freedom. For liberty is to be free from restraint and violence of others, which
cannot be where there is no law.” – John Locke
Principle 23–A
free society cannot survive as a republic without a broad program of general
education.
“They made an
early provision by law that every town consisting of so many families should be
always furnished with a grammar school. They made it a crime for such a town to
be destitute of a grammar schoolmaster for a few months, and subjected it to a
heavy penalty. So that the education of all ranks of people was made the care
and expense of the public, in a manner that I believe has been unknown to any
other people, ancient or modern. The consequences of these establishments we
see and feel every day [written in 1765]. A native of America who cannot read
and write is as rare … as a comet or an earthquake.” John Adams
Principle 24–A
free people will not survive unless they stay strong.
“To be prepared
for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.” – George
Washington
Principle 25–“Peace,
commerce, and honest friendship with all nations — entangling alliances with
none.”-Thomas Jefferson, given in his first inaugural address.
Principle 26 –The core unit which determines the strength of any
society is the family; therefore the government should foster and protect its
integrity.
“There is
certainly no country in the world where the tie of marriage is more respected
than in America, or where conjugal happiness is more highly or worthily
appreciated.” Alexis de Tocqueville
Principle 27–The burden of debt is as destructive to human freedom
as subjugation by conquest.
“We are bound to
defray expenses [of the war] within our own time, and are unauthorized to
burden posterity with them…. We shall all consider ourselves morally bound to
pay them ourselves and consequently within the life [expectancy] of the majority.”
– Thomas Jefferson
Principle 28–The
United States has a manifest destiny to eventually become a glorious example of
God’s law under a restored Constitution that will inspire the entire human
race.
The Founders
sensed from the very beginning that they were on a divine mission. Their great
disappointment was that it didn’t all come to pass in their day, but they knew
that someday it would. John Adams wrote:
“I always consider
the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand
scene and design in Providence for the illumination of the ignorant, and the
emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth.”
Daily Devotions
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