Under God

I was surprised when I heard in the U.S. news channel about this judge that is contesting the "under God" in the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance. They noticed that it was unconstitutional after decades of repeating it??. I was upset as well. How dare they say that. But you can see that they just want to wipe out God out of society. Christians have to be alert, very alert. Probably it will happen anyway because it is all within God's plan for the final days, but people have to be very careful no to be deceived and robbed of their faith. They have to stand tall and stand firm even when that will mean scorn and ridicule. When such a time like that comes, we will see who were the true followers of Jesus and who were just playing go to church. I pray that God gives me the strength to endure in His way and that I will not weaver.

Let me place here a little piece of an article I read about this:

'UNDER GOD' UNDER FIRE

America is experiencing a hostile takeover, an advancing conquest by abject secularists who believe -and demand- that our nation should be a religion-free zone that stifles all public religious expression. That movement experienced a surge this week when a San Francisco Federal District Court declared that the phrase "under God" in our nation's Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional.

The plaintiff in the case -the now notorious Michael Newdow- is a self-serving atheist who attempted to oust the phrase from the Pledge two years ago. The problem then was that he alleged that he was representing his daughter's desire to cast -under God- out of the Pledge. We found that the opposite was true; the little girl -who was living with her mother, a Christian- actually enjoyed reciting the Pledge in her school.

That case was thrown out when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Mr. Newdow had no standing to bring suit on behalf of his daughter because he had no parental authority to do so, following his divorce.

This is an amazing presumption -that children repeating two words are being compelled to affirm a religion. I wonder, Judge Karlton, are religious children similarly being compelled to forfeit their religious beliefs in classrooms that teach evolution as fact?

Our nation is being stripped of its prominent religious heritage -a heritage embraced by our Founders and by many generations.

If the militant secularists want to redefine this nation in their own Godless imagine, they should at least be honest with the American people and admit that they are contradicting our nation's extensive history of government-endorsed public religious expression, including National Days of Prayer, "In God We Trust" on our coinage, acknowledgment of the Creator in our Constitution and in countless other areas.

These religious references indicate the true chronicle of our nation. Those of us who love and respect this history better get serious about protecting it, because the enemies of our religious heritage are hell-bent on wiping out our history and instigating a new era -one of utter religious suppression.

It's a frightening prospect, but one that I believe is very real.

This was taken from the "Insider weekly newsletter to The Moral Majority Coalition and The Liberty Alliance".

It's so nice to see that

Today at church it was so nice to see this family. It was the parents and their 3 children. Two boys and a girl. They were like 16, 17, more & less. The father was sitting in between the two boys and all of a sudden, "dad" put his arm around the two boys and they looked so comfortable with their dad. I thought it was cute because at that age, children sometimes don't even want to be seen with their parents, but here were these two teenagers very comfortable with their father. At one point one of then put his arm around "dad" also. It reminds you what a good parent can do and how he or she can influence, for good or for bad, their children.

For me, a good family can only truly be accomplished if Jesus is the center of that couple and of that family. I hope one day God gives me the opportunity of having such a family, so that together we can worship Him and exalt Him. I don't think I ever passed through that stage in which I didn't want anything to do with my parents. I still have a good relationship with them. Do we have arguments? Of course, we are different. But I love them very much and I respect them. Specially mom, she is steadfast on her faith, a great example to me and we are like best friends.

Thank you God because there are still parents that we can look up to. That have You as their anchor, as their lamp, as their redeemer, as their savior. I believe there isn't anything more beautiful than to see a family working towards a common end. Parents and children together. When you can see unity, love, compassion, understanding among them. It's so nice to see that.

September 11

What an emotional date to so many people. Today last year my niece was being born and an aunt died. Some die, some are born. That is just the cycle of life.

Vacations

Next week, starting friday, my vacations start, I can't wait. I hope I can get a lot of rest. I haven't planned anything specific but just resting from the interpreting will be great. It doesn't seem like it but interpreting can be very exhausting mentally and as a result your body feels tired also. I was reading the other day in the newspaper about this lady who has worked as a translator all her adult life. On the article it said that interpreters and translators rotate themselves every 1/2 hour because it is so exhausting. That is not the case where I work. We sometimes are interpreting for 2 or 2 1/2 hours, maybe not on the same call, but one after the other. To give you an example, last week I started a call at 1:04 p.m. (by the way I got out at 1:30 p.m.) and I finished the call at 4:40 p.m. I was completely drained, my water had ran out, I had a sore throat, I was hungry...I felt really tired. If you are asking yourself what type of call lasted so long. It was a nurse and then a dietitian giving diabetes classes to a lady who recently found out she had diabetes. So imagine.

So I hope I can get a lot of rest. We'll see.

We are getting closer...

I've been watching the news over and over again and it is awful what you see in these images. I have been following the story about Hurricane Katrina ever since it was still on it's way to pass through Florida. Specially since I have family in the South Florida area so I was really concerned. When I saw what the hurricane had done in Florida and we were able to finally reach our family over there (because we couldn't get through to their land-line phone, we finally reach them at their cellphone) and they told us that part of the fence had fallen on top of one of their cars and that their neighbors roof had a hole on it, and that the canal near by had almost overflowed, I was like...Wow! I remember asking myself at that time, if it has done this being a category 1 and it's approaching New Orleans as a category 5, what will this thing do? But I never would have imagined what I have been seeing. The images are shocking and the destruction is unimaginable. I really believe authorities underestimated the power of this act of God. Seeing those people loosing everything they have, everything they have built, everything they have worked for...it's like reading Job's word in the Bible in Job 1:21..."Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD."

It's hard to imagine what it means going through that unless you have experienced it yourself. It makes you give thanks for things many of us take for granted, like water, a toilet, a/c, etc. Having to lie in your own feces as I was hearing in the news some hospital patients were doing at a New Orleans hospital...it's sobering to say the least. I imagine these sick people, with chronic illnesses, like diabetes or high blood pressure, not being able to take their meds, having to be all wet with filthy water, newborn babies, mother's that have just delivered, it's hard, really hard.

What has been specially appalling for me has been the looting, the shooting, the murders, the raping. How police officers, firefighters, patients trying to be evacuated from the hospitals have been shot at with sniper fire. It shows how can the best and also the worst can come out of extreme circumstances. You can possibly understand if people loot food and water, I don't like it, but I could possibly understand that. But robbing TV's?? guns?? no way!! How can someone possibly be thinking of looting and killing and raping when there is such a disaster going on? It just shows what man's nature really is, it shows the sin within us, how far from God we are. We are a world that has taken God out of our lives, a society who believes that man can do anything...is there any need for God? Certainly not...we can do anything.......WRONG!!!!! It shows how miniscule we are and how could God if He wanted to could wipe us all out. We are all in His hands.

Psalms 118:8... It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man.

Jeremiah 17:5 and 7... Thus says the LORD: "Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD".
"Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD".

I was thinking about these women in the Superdome and at the Convention Center in New Orleans, you came to these places to take shelter from the storm, and you end up being there, not knowing if you still have a house or not, if maybe a relative that you haven't seen or heard from is alive or dead, without food or water, without a proper place to urinate or have a bowel movement, with heat and on top of all that... raped?? Outrageous!!! How very sobering that this is happening in the United States of America. You would think that this country has all the resources needed to respond right away, but I guess they didn't in this case. They are responding now, but the help was needed as soon as the storm passed. And I really hate to see this happening. There are people out of the U.S. who really dislike the United States, that is something that you can't hide. I for the most, defend them, because I believe they are a Christian founded nation, a nation who has stood up for Israel, but in this case I do not know what to say, except that the help has taken too long and that the appropiate measures were not taken. Again, "Katrina" was underestimated. If the local authorities in New Orleans knew that the storm was a category 5 (thank God it downgraded to a category 4 when it landed, because if not imagine) and also knew that the levee's could only handled I believe a category 2 or 3 storm, they should have gotten all those buses that are being used now to evacuate people, and evacuate the poor people of the city before the storm. Of the people that could have evacuated and didn't want to, this will be a lesson for future situations, to learn and listen to your authorities. I do hope things will get under control soon. The best day yet I think it was yesterday, but the people at the Convention Center are still there, not one has been evacuated as I watched the news this morning, I hope they are evacuated no later than today. I understand that the situation is difficult, areas are hard to reach, but the reality has been much worse than what anticipated. I guess their worst case scenario was not even close to reality. I will pray that as in any other difficult situation the U.S. has been through, they will be able to rise from the ashes. So my prayers are with these people from Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida and Alabama and basically with the whole country. I know they will recover, but as a human being I hoped they wouldn't have had to go through this. But I have to remind myself that since we live on a fallen world, sin is on this earth, and the earth can't bear it anymore.

So as my title says...we are getting closer and closer to the end of times, to the second return of Jesus. I think I have wrote before in here that for me personally 9/11/01 was a turning point. For me that was the beginning of the clock towards Jesus second coming. And from that time on, I know things are going to get worse instead of better, because we are getting closer. Let me end this post with the word of God, read it and meditate please. We are not exactly there yet (what these verses describe) but we are getting closer.

"and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains"...Matthew 24:7-8...........you can add hurricanes there after earthquakes.

"And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another"...Matthew 24:10

"And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold"...Matthew 24:12

"Let the one who is on the housetop not go down to take what is in his house"...Matthew 24:17

"And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days!...Matthew 24:19

But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect...Matthew 24:36-44.

"Katrina" is nothing compared to the signs that will be seen to the Close of the Age.

If you want you can also read about my Tsunami post.