From My Perspective - - -

This past week there was the recognition that 100 years ago the Titanic set sail on its maiden voyage. Eyewitness To History reported: “On April 10, 1912, the Titanic, largest ship afloat, left Southampton, England on her maiden voyage to New York City. The White Star Line had spared no expense in assuring her luxury. A legend even before she sailed, her passengers were a mixture of the world's wealthiest basking in the elegance of first class accommodations and immigrants packed into steerage. She was touted as the safest ship ever built, so safe that she carried only 20 lifeboats - enough to provide accommodation for only half her 2,200 passengers and crew. This discrepancy rested on the belief that since the ship's construction made her ‘unsinkable,’ her lifeboats were necessary only to rescue survivors of other sinking ships. Additionally, lifeboats took up valuable deck space. Four days into her journey, at 11:40 P.M. on the night of April 14, she struck an iceberg…It became obvious that many would not find safety in a lifeboat. Each passenger was issued a life jacket but life expectancy would be short when exposed to water four degrees below freezing…The great ship slowly slid beneath the waters two hours and forty minutes after the collision…The next morning, the liner Carpathia rescued 705 survivors- 1,522 passengers and crew were lost. Subsequent inquiries attributed the high loss of life to an insufficient number of lifeboats and inadequate training in their use.

This week, there will be another day for remembrance. One year ago – April 27, 2011 – is chronicled as “…being among the most prolific and destructive tornado days in United States history with a record 208 tornadoes touching down that day. Four of the tornadoes were destructive enough to be rated EF5 …In total, 346 people were killed as a result of the outbreak. That death toll includes 322 tornado-related deaths across six states...24 fatalities… were the result of other thunderstorm related impacts such as straight line winds, hail, flash-flooding or lightening…” A large business section in Tuscaloosa was shredded…and there is evidence of the storm’s damage one year after the event.

On another front, your Congress at work for you, is now seeking to regulate and/or curtail political speech. “House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi…endorsed a movement announced by other congressional Democrats…to ratify an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would allow Congress to regulate political speech when it is engaged in by corporations as opposed to individuals…The constitutional amendment the Democrats seek would reverse the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. In that decision the court said that the First Amendment protects a right of free speech for corporations as well as for individuals, and that corporations (including those that produce newspapers, films and books) have a right to speak about politicians and their records just as individuals do. We have a clear agenda in this regard: Disclose, reform the system reducing the role of money in campaigns, and amend the Constitution to rid it of this ability for special interests to use secret, unlimited, huge amounts of money flowing to campaigns, Pelosi said at her Thursday press briefing.” If Freedom of Speech can be curtailed, what’s next? Can Freedom of Religion be on the horizon for the secular-minded Congress?

Psalm 2 has a timely word for those who put their trust and confidence in lesser things and deny The Lord His rightful place in faith, life and practice. The Psalm (NKJV) states: ”Why do the nations rage, And the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, And the rulers take counsel together, Against the Lord and against His Anointed…He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; The Lord shall hold them in derision. Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, And distress them in His deep displeasure… Now therefore, be wise, O kings; Be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear…  rejoice with trembling…Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.” Psalm 9:15-17 (NLT) cautions and reminds  – “The nations have fallen into the pit they dug for others. They have been caught in their own trap. The Lord is known for his justice. The wicked have trapped themselves in their own snares. The wicked will go down to the grave. This is the fate of all the nations who ignore God.” Be warned and aware – a day of accountability and reckoning approaches.  Consider these things with me!