Thursday, November 04, 2010

Reid - "just saying no doesn't do the trick."

From Yahoo News -

WASHINGTON – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says lawmakers of both parties need to start working together now that Republicans have reduced the Democrats' dominance in the chamber.

Reid said on NBC's "Today" show that he planned to speak Wednesday with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on ways to "build a consensus and move this country along."

Senate Democrats lost at least six seats on Election Day, but narrowly held their majority. Reid himself survived an aggressive challenge from tea party favorite Sharron Angle to win re-election.

The Nevada Democrat said he has a "good relationship" with McConnell, but he asked the Republicans to be more open to compromise, telling ABC's "Good Morning America" that "just saying no doesn't do the trick."


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American voters have stopped the Obama train. Now it's time to see if the bunch we sent to Washington can turn the train around and get it headed in the right direction again.

Reid says that "just saying no doesn't do the trick". Umm, not saying no enough is what put the train on the wrong tracks full speed ahead to begin with.

Neil Boortz said yesterday that Americans have put the republicans "on probation".

This may well be "Custer's last stand" or the "Invasion of Normandy" for the republican party.

We'll see...

13 comments:

Jon said...

Wayne,
This has nothing to do with your post, but I'm hoping you can help me out. A friend wrote this in response to my wife and I sharing about grace, love, and Matt 22:36 where Jesus sums up the Law. I'm looking for the type of thoughtful response you usually give me and others when these types of issues arise. Here is what she said:

"So what you're saying is we're supposed to ignore every other part of the Bible and His commandments and focus EVERYTHING on ONE command? How can you study the Word and believe that? And to call following the commands "Legalism" is a bunch of baloney. It's all there for a reason-and not JUST John 15:17. It's an all or nothing relationship. And it takes EFFORT on our part. How does it glorify Him if it's easy enough for us to do it on our own. His strength is made perfect in our weakness.

Hebrews chapter 6 tells us to move beyond this basic undertanding of the gospel and and maturing in the Word. Yes, Love is a big part of it, but it is not ALL of it. Repentance brings DELIVERANCE. If you continue to sin the same sins over a...nd over, then your heart isn't truly repentant of that sin. The word of God, OT and NT alike, teaches us to live a pure and righteous life. The whole doctrine that all that matters is t love one another and that it is not possible to be pure and righteous is flawed, and ultimately leading souls to Hell. Galatians 6:5 says that EACH PERSON IS TO BEAR HIS OWN LOAD. Each person is responsible for their own sin. Jesus Christ shed His blood as an offering for our sin, not to justify our sins. There is no justification for sin. Ever. Sin is sin, and the wages of sin is DEATH."

Your thoughts?

Steve Martin said...

Jonathan,

I hope you don't mind my butting in.

Yes, it's all there. The Law (what we should, ought, and must be doing)...AND...the gospel.

There are purposes to the Law. 1)a civil use...that we might be able to live together a bit more harmoniously without total chaos (to restain evil)and 2) to expose our sin, and drive us to Christ.

When Jesus gave his Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, he wasn't goading us on to better and better righteousness and giving us the ability to be sinless. He was showing us how we could never attain what the Law demands of us. He was re-presenting the Law, so that there would be absolutely NO WIGGLE ROOM for us to fall back on our performance towards righteousness.

This inability by much of the church and many, many, Christians (out of ignorance mainly) is probably the biggest problem Christians face.

"While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

Not when we cleaned up our act. We often don't even know how to clean up our act, we are so self-obsessed.

But He does know how, and He does clean us up. Continually! He leads us to repentance, over and over again! repentance is NOT the ability to stop a certain sin, or to do what one needs to do (a much bigger list). It is a sorrow for sin and a turning back to Christ for forgiveness.

Us Lutheran types believe that Christ knows full well our sin problem to the point where He wants us to have His forgiveness, so badly, that He crams it down our throats in the Lord's Supper.

That is why He said that "whoever does not eat my body and drink my blood has no life in them."

No, in this life, we will continue to sin, and oftentimes the same sins over and over. But His love for us cannot be outrun by our sin.

Repentance and forgiveness...over and over, and over...that is the life of the believer.

The life of faith is NOT an easy one.

And His forgiveness for us wasn't EASY, either. He was mocked, hated, and staked to wood to bleed and suffocate to death.

GRACE. God's riches at Christ's expense. That's the GOOD NEWS!!!

Luther penned in his great hym , 'A Mighty Fortress is our God', "If we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing. We're not the right man on our side, the Man of God's own choosing."

Your friend is hearing the Law (no problem there), but so far she has not heard the gospel.

I'll pray that the Word of love and forgiveness in Christ Jesus...FOR HER...will brake through and give her the peace of the Lord.

Steve Martin said...

Oh boy, am I tired...'brake'?

I meant 'break'!

Dawg said...

Jonathan -

I am just now (Sat 8:30am) looking at my blog for the first time since I posted the Reid bit.

Unfortunately I have to leave right now and will not have time to respond until Monday.

Steve has pretty much nailed it...and that hymn is one of my fav's!

I will be in prayer for her.

Jon said...

Steve,

Thank you. While I know what she's walking through, as I was once in her shoes a few years ago, or more accurately, my whole life until a couple years ago, I still find it hard to share with her the truth that has been revealed to me. Mostly, I would say, because she believes she can't be wrong, and no one else can be right, or at least, there are possibly only a very particular few in her life that could teach her, or share something other than what she knows to be truth. Boils down to being teachable, and she's not.

I've learned in this experience that it may not always be important to share the truth, at least not in the way that my wife and I went about it (honestly I think the way we went about it would have been fine for 99% of people), but it seems we missed something somewhere, and I'm starting to see that maybe the message became more important than her, though we did strive to speak with grace, leave grace on the table, and bow out with grace, leaving open the possibility, and the surety, that we might be wrong in some areas, that we haven't arrived and don't know everything.

I pray as well that she will come to a knowledge of grace.

Steve Martin said...

Jonathan,

I think you did well not to bang her over with it (grace).

Some people just have a hard time with it. It's almost like when a goose follows around a person, thinking it is their mother. Some people are brought up with law, and it gets imprinted on them, and that's all they know, or want to know.

My pastor says that with folks like that, sometimes the best course of action is to keep pouring the law on them ('are you sure you are doing enough?')

I too will pray that your friend is killed off by the law, and raised again by grace.

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