Parable: THE ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER

I generally try to refrain from forwarding emails which have been forwarded to me.  However, this ‘parable’ hits home.  Please see my know at the end.

THE ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER
This one is a little different... . Two Different Versions.... .......... .....  Two Different Morals

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OLD VERSION
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away..

Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.
The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself!

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MODERN VERSION
The ant works hard in the withering heat and the rain all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while he is cold and starving.

CBS, NBC , PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.

America is stunned by the sharp contrast.

How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper and everybody cries when they sing, 'It's Not Easy Being Green.'

ACORN stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the group singing, “We shall overcome.” Then Rev. Jeremiah Wright has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's  sake.  

President Obama condemns the ant and blames President Bush, President Reagan, Christopher Columbus, and the Pope for the grasshopper's plight.

Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on theant to make him pay his fair share.
Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer.

The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government Green Czar and given to the grasshopper.

The story ends as we see the grasshopper and his free-loading friends finishing up the last bits of the ant’s food while the government house he is in, which, as you recall, just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around them because the grasshopper doesn't maintain it.

The ant has disappeared in the snow, never to be seen again.

The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident, and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the ramshackle, once prosperous and once peaceful, neighborhood.
The entire Nation collapses bringing the rest of the free world with it.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Be careful how you vote in 2010.

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I have seen this played out in my own extended family and it grieves me that some of my own ‘kinfolk’ play the role of grasshopper.  As family we have tried to be the ant, going on to even help, yet, they continue to play the grasshopper role, milking the system for all it is worth.

I believe it was John Wesley that once spoke to believers in Jesus Christ about money:  “Make as much as you can. Save as much as you can.  Give as much as you can.”

This life is not about earning.  It is not about getting.  Life is about living, by giving and helping as we are directed by God, not compelled by the Government, to give to those who will not work.

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BE

Quote: Right to Bear Arms

"A government that does not trust it's law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms is itself unworthy of trust."
-- James Madison
(1751-1836), Father of the Constitution for the USA, 4th US President
Source: Federalist Papers
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/James.Madison.Quote.B15E

"The maintenance of the right to bear arms is a most essential one to every free people and should not be whittled down by technical constructions."
-- State vs. Kerner
Source: 181 N.C. 574, 107 S.E. 222, at 224 (1921)
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/State.vs..Kerner.Quote.CA0B

"To prohibit a citizen from wearing or carrying a war arm ... is an unwarranted restriction upon the constitutional right to keep and bear arms. If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of constitutional privilege."
-- Wilson v. State
Source: 33 Ark. 557, at 560, 34Am. Rep. 52, at 54 (1878)
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Wilson.v..State.Quote.CA00

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BE

Health Care Reform: Marriage Penalty

It is no surprise that the leaders of our government are opposed to the Judeo-Christian heritage we have enjoyed for nearly two hundred years in our government.  Yet you would not expect legislative attacks against families.  Yet, this is part of what is hidden in the 2000+ page 'health' care plan in the senate.

Marriage Penalty Hidden in Health Care Reform, an article from Citizen Link, clearly indicates that Congress intends to penalize couples who marry, in a significant way.  For example:

For instance, in the House version, an unmarried couple each making $30,000 a year would pay $1,320 combined each year for private health insurance.  If that couple chose to marry, their premium would jump to $12,000 a year, a difference of $10,680.

Refusing to prohibit abortion funding, end of life care management (euthanazia), and now penalizing couples what want to life according to God's standards.  Clearly this legislation is not about reform, but about control and opposing what is Right and Just.

If you haven't, contact your legislator, specifically your senator, and let them know that voting for this 'health care reform' is an act of treason against the people of the United States of America.
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BE

Psalm 50

A Psalm of Asaph.

The Mighty One, God the LORD,
speaks and summons the earth
from the rising of the sun to its setting.
Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,
God shines forth.
Our God comes;
he does not keep silence;
before him is a devouring fire,
around him a mighty tempest.

He calls to the heavens above and to the earth,
that he may judge his people:

"Gather to me my faithful ones,
who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!"

The heavens declare his righteousness,
for God himself is judge!
Selah

"Hear, O my people, and I will speak;
O Israel, I will testify against you.
I am God, your God.
Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you;
your burnt offerings are continually before me.
I will not accept a bull from your house or goats from your folds.
For every beast of the forest is mine,
the cattle on a thousand hills.
I know all the birds of the hills,
and all that moves in the field is mine.

"If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
for the world and its fullness are mine.
Do I eat the flesh of bulls or
drink the blood of goats?
Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,
and perform your vows to the Most High,
and call upon me in the day of trouble;
I will deliver you,
and you shall glorify me."

But to the wicked God says:

"What right have you to recite my statutes
or take my covenant on your lips?
For you hate discipline,
and you cast my words behind you.
If you see a thief,
you are pleased with him,
and you keep company with adulterers.

"You give your mouth free rein for evil,
and your tongue frames deceit.
You sit and speak against your brother;
you slander your own mother's son.
These things you have done,
and I have been silent;
you thought that I was one like yourself.
But now I rebuke you
and lay the charge before you.

"Mark this, then,
you who forget God,
lest I tear you apart,
and there be none to deliver!
The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me;
to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!"

(Psa 50:1-23 ESV)

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I was reminded this morning during my time with the Lord, that he is the one who orders the days and seasons.  I was reminded that He is not silent.  I was reminded that I must offer thanks and order my life rightly.  And regardless of what happens, ultimately, He, the Lord my God, will deliver me.

BE

Quote: Constitutional Rights

"The right of a citizen to bear arms, in lawful defense of himself or the State, is absolute. He does not derive it from the State government. It is one of the "high powers" delegated directly to the citizen, and `is excepted out of the general powers of government.' A law cannot be passed to infringe upon or impair it, because it is above the law, and independent of the lawmaking power."
-- Cockrum v. State
Source: 24 Tex. 394, at 401-402 (1859)
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Cockrum.v..State.Quote.CA0E

"The claim and exercise of a Constitutional right cannot be converted into a crime."
-- Miller v. U.S.
Source: 230 F 2d 486, 489.
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Miller.v..U.S..Quote.CA12

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BE

Quote: The Righteous vs. Wicked Rulers

"It is when a people forget God that tyrants forge their chains."

— Patrick Henry

When the righteous triumph, there is great glory, but when the wicked rise, people hide themselves.  (Pro 28:12 ESV)

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BE