15 Responsibilities You Have As An Adult by John Hawkins

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. — 1 Corinthians 13:11

 

A society of children cannot survive, no matter how all-embracing the government nanny. — Mark Steyn

 

The biggest reason that our government has turned into a nanny state is because so many American adults act like spoiled, petulant children. This is not about being a conservative as opposed to a liberal; it’s about being an adult as opposed to a child. You want to be a man? Act like a man, not a boy. You want to be treated like a woman? Act like a woman instead of a little girl playing with her dolls. Ultimately, if you want the respect that comes with being an adult, you have to do more than reach adulthood. Instead, you have to actually embrace the responsibilities that come with being a man. Until you can do that, you’ll forever be an unworthy child, no matter what age you reach.

1) Whether you want to have your yearly coupling with your wife or take on the Dallas Cowboys, it’s not everyone else’s business unless you ask them to pay for it. Keep the government — and everyone else — out of your bedroom.  Pay for your own contraceptives.

2) It’s your job to take care of your kids. It’s your job to feed them, clothe them, watch over them, and teach them right from wrong. Of course, it’s not easy. It has never been easy, but somehow everybody from cavemen to medieval peasants to Vikings managed to pull it off. If they can do it, you can do it.

3) The government may put basic safety regulations in place, but at the end of the day, you’re responsible for your own life and limb. If you spill hot coffee on yourself, slip on an icy sidewalk, fail to strap into your parachute, kill yourself after listening to heavy metal music, die from smoking, crack your head open because you didn’t wear a motorcycle helmet, drown after a hurricane you knew was coming for a few days or pee on an electric fence, that’s your fault. It’s shouldn’t be the job of the government or the court system to kiss your boo-boo and make it better when anybody with half a brain wouldn’t have done something so dumb in the first place.

4) Yes, you MAY get Social Security and Medicare, although given the size of our deficit, you can’t count on those programs long-term unless we have serious reform. Yet and still, that’s probably not going to be enough money for you to live on. To live in comfort, you’re going to need more money than that. You should be setting it aside now unless being a greeter at Wal-Mart when you’re 80 has a lot of appeal to you.

5) Your life is your responsibility. Whether you end up rich or broke, drunk or sober, in jail or free, successful or a failure — it’s all the fault of the person looking back at you in the mirror. If things go wrong, don’t blame your country, your government, your parents, your spouse, the political party you don’t like, bad luck, being born under the wrong sign — you did it. Own it so that you can do something about it.

6) Would your mother be proud of the person you are today? Can people trust you to do the right thing? If you weren’t around and they were being honest, would your friends, your children, or your local pastor say you were a good person? No matter what rules, standards, and laws are in place, they’re no good unless the people are good. No one’s perfect, but if you’re not a fundamentally decent person, you’re not a responsible adult.

7) This country was here before you were born and it’ll be here after you die. You have a solemn duty to leave this nation better than you found it, if only by refusing to sponge off your fellow citizens.

8) If you’re not an informed voter, if you don’t know who Joe Biden is, which party is pro-life or which party is pro-abortion, or which party is pushing for low gas prices and which party prefers high gas prices, you shouldn’t vote. You don’t have a responsibility to vote; you have a responsibility to be an informed voter. Learn what’s going on or don’t vote.

9) If life is a game, then the Constitution is the set of rules we play by in this country. And guess what? People cheat all the time. Not only is it unfair to cheat, those rules have made us the most successful country the world has ever seen. The more those rules are bastardized, the less successful our nation is going to be. You don’t have to become a constitutional scholar, but take the time to learn something about the Constitution. It’ll help make you a good American.

10) The sad truth of the matter is that you can get a high school degree along with a college degree and STILL be woefully ignorant of history, economics, and how the world works. That’s why you have to continue to educate yourself if you want to be wise.

11) If you get upside down on your mortgage, that’s a tough break — for you. Your house is your responsibility and nobody else should have to pay a dime on it, especially other people who’re paying their own mortgages.

12) It’s not the government’s job to pay your bills, find you a job, and keep you living in the style to which you’ve grown accustomed. There are people who work crummy jobs just to keep some money coming in, work 2 jobs, or even move to a better area to find work. That may not be pleasant, but paying your bills is a responsibility that ultimately rests on your shoulders.

13) You don’t need the government to ban trans fat or build a new grocery store in your area because you’re in a “food desert.” Eat what you want and take the consequences.

14) You don’t want the responsibility for your own health care because you think it’s too expensive? Wait and see how much it costs when the government gives it to you for “free.” Then see how well your decisions about your own health match up with the ones made by some faceless bureaucrat in D.C. Here’s a hint: You’re interested in you. They’re interested in saving the government money. Your interests, even in cases of life or death, will not always coincide.

15) If you went $80,000 in debt to get a philosophy degree from a private school and now you’re stuck working at the Waffle House because nobody’s impressed with your mastery of Kant, you don’t have anyone but yourself to blame. Pay for your own college loans.

http://townhall.com/columnists/johnhawkins/2012/03/13/15_responsibilities_you_have_as_an_adult/page/full/

The Wichita Lineman by Mike Adams

The phone lines at Wichita State University (WSU) have apparently been down for well over a decade. At least it appears that way after WSU blatantly violated a twelve-year old Supreme Court ruling in its efforts to curtail religious expression across its state-supported campus. Fortunately, my friend and attorney David French of the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) has intervened. He re-established contact with WSU and helped usher them into the 21st Century by slowly explaining the First Amendment to bewildered state officials.

The problem began when WSU enacted a rule that prohibited any “non-scholarly religious” student group from receiving student fee funding. This was nothing more than a thinly-veiled attempt to defund virtually all religious groups at WSU. Think about it for a second: how many student religious groups do you know of that have a primary interest in “scholarship”? Student religious groups are largely social in nature and usually meet for purposes of evangelism. These groups know that most church-going kids lose their faith – or nearly lose their faith – while in college. So they seek to counter those negative trends with evangelism.

Of course, universities don’t like that. They are engaged in their own process of evangelism. They seek to increase membership in the official university religion known as secular humanism. And that is why they are constantly devising illegal policies and trying to disguise them under false categorical schemes – the kind the Supreme Court has banned under decisions like Rosenberger v. Rector  & Visitors of the University of Virginia (1995) and Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System v. Southworth (2000).

The reasoning for the false and illegal scholarly/non-scholarly dichotomy is transparent. Universities rarely stray from restating some form of their ostensible purpose in banning speech that may offend. Here, the idea is that using student fee money to advocate for religion on campus or to engage in worship or other activities might cause others to object (read: to be offended). But so-called scholarly activity, absent evangelism or worship, is unlikely to offend.

But here’s the rub: these rules are confined to religious student groups – as opposed to groups engaged in political, social, and other forms of direct advocacy. And that amounts to the official disfavoring of religion compared to other viewpoints.

If you aren’t convinced then you probably do not know the facts.  So here they are: WSU allows the viewpoints of such student groups as “That Gay Group,” College Republicans, College Democrats, Young Democratic Socialists, and Wichita Students for Liberty to exist on campus. All of those groups are involved in persuasive advocacy.

Robert Shibley of the Foundation for Individual Right in Education (FIRE) summed it up nicely by saying, “If other student groups continue to receive funding from student fees for ‘non-scholarly’ activities, there is no justification for denying funding to groups whose primary interest is religious.” Nothing more need be said.

Actually, something more does need to be said. WSU officials need to sit down and read FIRE’s Guide to Student Fees, Funding and Legal Equality on Campus. They also need to read two Supreme Court cases, Rosenberger and Southworth (both mentioned previously in this column). I assign those two cases to my undergraduate students so they will know their rights. Administrators also need to read them so they can learn the rules that apply to their jobs. Of course, to do so would place their reliance on qualified immunity in jeopardy. There would be no more pretending they were just doing their jobs and did not understand the law.

Fortunately, a student at WSU did know the law and contacted David French at the ACLJ. Shortly after receiving a First Amendment lesson from French, WSU revoked the discriminatory policy and restored equal funding rights to its religious groups. This area of law is settled; what is surprising is that there are still universities out there that continue to pretend they didn’t “get the memo.” They need to watch Office Space before they get sued and wind up with a bad case of the Mondays. (My apologies go out to those who haven’t seen the movie and missed the pop culture reference altogether).

Religious speech on campus must be treated like all other speech on campus. To say that a student group should be disfavored simply because its viewpoint is based on religion – rather than any other belief or “orientation” – is unmitigated bigotry. To permit such a distinction would be to allow the university to silence any speech that does not conform to administrative orthodoxy. Put simply, it would cause the university to cease being a university.

It is good that WSU has chosen to repent and turn from its sinfully censorious ways. Credit belongs to those First Amendment evangelists who spread the good news of religious liberty on our nation’s campuses. Real scholars would be lost without them.

http://townhall.com/columnists/mikeadams/2012/03/13/the_wichita_lineman/page/full/

The Law of Consequence

“Do not be deceived…A man reaps what he sows.” Gal 6:7 NIV

Your child says, “I didn’t mean to break the window.” You reply, “But you threw the rock that broke it, right? So you’ll pay for repairing it.” And when your child pays, he or she learns a principle that could save them from costlier consequences down the road. God, who is a loving heavenly Father, invented the law of consequence—for our benefit. Consider this: (1) Your decisions determine the kind of harvest you reap. Adam and Eve got to choose whether or not to obey God, but they didn’t get to escape the consequences of their choice. “A man reaps what he sows.” You’re not the pawn of a punitive god, malevolent cosmic force, the devil, or luck. You have been given the power to choose right or wrong. (2) Your decisions impact others. Hurting them may not have been your intention, but often it’s collateral damage you can’t avoid. After conquering Jericho, Achan stole some of the spoils, causing Israel’s defeat at Ai. Later Joshua challenged him, saying, “Why have you brought this trouble on us?” (Jos 7:25 NIV). Before you act, you need to consider who will get hurt by the fallout from your decision. Will it be your children, spouse, friends, church, etc.? (3) Forgiveness may not cancel the consequences of your decision. God hears your confession, freely forgives you and expunges your record, but the harvest law may still remain in effect. “David confessed…‘I have sinned against the Lord.’ Nathan replied, ‘Yes, but the Lord has forgiven you…[but] your child will die” (2Sa12:13-14 NLT). So if you don’t want to reap, don’t sow.

http://theencouragingword.wordpress.com/2012/03/13/the-law-of-consequence/

How to Solve a Problem

“If you go with me, then I will go; but if you do not go with me, I will not go.”— Judges 4:8

Thus spoke the renowned Israelite general, Barak, to the prophetess Deborah. Deborah had just beseeched Barak to lead his Jewish soldiers against the evil commander Sisera, in an attempt to free Israel from two decades of oppression at the hands of the Canaanites. In response to Deborah’s plea, Barak insisted that Deborah accompany his troops into battle – only then would he consent to take up arms against the enemy.

Barak’s response to Deborah is reflective of a most profound tenet of Biblical theology:  personal responsibility. If Deborah truly wished to see God’s will done – if she truly wished to protect the Jewish people in their Promised Land – she must see to the task herself. Only through personal engagement with a problem may one hope to solve it. And only by owning the solution to one’s difficulties will that solution be truly lasting.

As our world becomes ever more interconnected in this Information Age, it has become increasingly easy to assume that when a problem arises someone else is fixing it. With so many people walking the earth, surely somebody has already thought to remedy the ills we all glimpse in our world on a daily basis. Our own contributions would be so tiny (or so we tell ourselves). It couldn’t possibly make much difference in the long run if we remain complacent – content simply to cheer others on from the sidelines.

The power of Barak’s reminder to Deborah, then, is in its call to accountability. Indeed, both Deborah and Barak could have remained at home, hoping that some other hero would come along and disperse Israel’s enemies. Instead, they decided to take charge of their fate and the fate of their people. They held themselves accountable to the change they wished to affect in their society.

Similarly, if we wish to right the wrongs within our world, we must take an active, and personal role in doing so. In the words of the great Jewish thinker Hannah Arendt, “Action without a name, a who attached to it, is meaningless.”

Let us strive to make our actions meaningful.

http://www.holylandmoments.org/devotionals/how-to-solve-a-problem

An enemy unto thine enemies. Exodus 23:22

IT is a most helpful thought that the angel of the covenant in whom is God‘s name, always precedes us. In our march through the wilderness we perceive His form, which is viewless to others, and realize that His strong hand prepares our path. Let us be very careful not to grieve or disobey Him, lest we lose His mighty championship. Strict obedience to His slightest whisper secures the certainty of His vindication of us from the wrongs we suffer at the hands of our foes. A little further on the same voice promises to send a hornet before the chosen host (Exodus 23:28). He who is an angel to the saint is a hornet to his foes. A swarm of hornets is the most relentless and irresistible foe that man can face.

Have you enemies? Be sure that they hate you only for the truth’s sake, and because darkness must always be in antagonism to light. “Who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good? But and if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled.” But see to it that you cherish no spirit of hatred or retaliation toward them. Think of the misery of their heart, which is full of jealousy, envy, and bitterness. Pity and pray for them.

When we are right with God we shall have many new enemies. All who hate Him will hate us. But this is rather to our credit than otherwise. Those who have defamed the master of the household will be hostile to his servants. But when our cause is one with God’s, and His foes ours, our foes are His, and He deals with them; He stands between us and their hate. He will not leave us in their hands; He will give us vindication and deliverance.

http://devotionals.ochristian.com/f-b-meyer-devotional.shtml

Feed On the Bread of Life Everyday

Feed On the Bread of Life Everyday.

The Daily Spurgeon: Let us not neglect His Word

The Daily Spurgeon: Let us not neglect His Word.

Tozer Devotional-Bowing to Christ’s Lordship

Bowing to Christ‘s Lordship

Allowing the expression “Accept Christ” to stand as an honest effort to say in short what could not be so well said any other way, let us see what we mean or should mean when we use it. To accept Christ is to form an attachment to the Person of our Lord Jesus altogether unique in human experience. The attachment is intellectual, volitional and emotional. The believer is intellectually convinced that Jesus is both Lord and Christ; he has set his will to follow Him at any cost and soon his heart is enjoying the exquisite sweetness of His fellowship. This attachment is all-inclusive in that it joyfully accepts Christ for all that He is. There is no craven division of offices whereby we may acknowledge His Saviorhood today and withhold decision on His Lordship till tomorrow. The true believer owns Christ as his All in All without reservation. He also includes all of himself, leaving no part of his being unaffected by the revolutionary transaction. Further, his attachment to Christ is all-exclusive. The Lord becomes to him not one of several rival interests, but the one exclusive attraction forever. He orbits around Christ as the earth around the sun, held in thrall by the magnetism of His love, drawing all his life and light and warmth from Him. In this happy state he is given other interests, it is true, but these are all determined by his relation to his Lord.

http://www.cmalliance.org/devotions/tozer?id=487

Another Wall A-Tumblin’ Down · Max Lucado

Another Wall A-Tumblin’ Down · Max Lucado.

O God, Seize My Heart! by Mark D. Roberts

Ezekiel 14:1-23

So I’ll seize the hearts of the house of Israel, whose idols have made them all strangers to me. (CEB)

Ezekiel 14:5

Ezekiel 14 begins with a revelation to the prophet concerning the elders of Israel. They have chosen on their own to set up idols rather than to worship God and God alone. Their hearts wandered away from the Lord and became snared in spiritual adultery. Their persistent unfaithfulness has brought upon the elders and the people of Israel God’s righteous judgment.

But chapter 14 shows another aspect of God’s response to the unfaithfulness of his people. When the leader who has practiced idolatry approaches a genuine prophet, the Lord will hold him accountable for his sin (14:4). Yet this is not merely about divine justice, for the Lord adds, “So I’ll seize the hearts of the house of Israel, whose idols have made them all strangers to me” (14:5). The verb translated as “seize” is not a gentle one. It suggest that God will garb onto his people in order to pull them away from their idols.

Moreover, the Lord is angry because the idols have made all of the Israelites “strangers to me” (14:5). When he seizes his people, taking them away from their idols, he does so in order to restore relationship. God’s ultimate purpose is to be in a permanent, intimate relationship with those he has called to be his people. Thus, only a few verses later, he looks forward to the time when “They will be my people, and I will be their God” (14:11).

I have been a Christian for almost five decades. And, though I have never set up literal idols to worship, I have at times chosen to become enmeshed with that which takes me away from the Lord. Thus, my desire is that God might seize my heart, wrenching me away from that which makes me a stranger to him.

QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER REFLECTION: What are the “idols” in your life that keep you away from an intimate relationship with God? Has God ever “seized you heart” so that you might have a renewed relationship with him? From what might God seize you today?

PRAYER: Seize my heart, O Lord! From all that keeps me away from you, seize me! From all that I value more than you, seize me! From all that I love more than you, seize me! Seize my heart, O Lord, that I might know you truly, intimately, joyfully. Amen.

http://www.thehighcalling.org/reflection/o-god-seize-my-heart