"Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding."

(Proverbs 3:5)

False Ways

Dear Friends,

Greetings. We hope you all had a great week as the world around us continues to experience what some are calling the greatest changes in the last thousand years.

With so many different events happening around the world we have decided to concentrate on three events that have come to the fore or will be coming to the fore in the not too distant future. One issue concerns the United Nations treaty known as the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, or CRC. Another issue concerns the closure of the last U.S. Military base in central Asia, and the final news article deals with the on-going concern involving the economy of the United States. The three articles are reprinted below.

Before reading the article concerning the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child we wanted to give you a Biblical perspective on child raising so that you would be able to compare it to the proposals being put forth by the U.N.

As is mentioned near the beginning of the article; "every decision a parent makes can be reviewed by the government to determine whether it is in the child's best interest".

The Bible says; " Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward". (Psalms 127:3) Heritage has several connotations, amongst them "a special or individual possession, a valued object". Children are a very special possession which God has given to the parents, not to the State. Joel 2:17 states regarding our special possessions; "Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O LORD, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them".

Concerning child discipline the Bible is very clear; " Chasten thy son while there is hope. (Proverbs 19:18) This is of course very politically incorrect in much of today's world. This verse has been used out of context by those seeking to undermine faith in God's Word. This is of course talking about moderate reasonable discipline. All one must do is look at many of the young people in the U.S. and the UK to see the results of a lack of discipline in their lives.

In the book of Proverbs chapter twenty two verse six it says; "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Most of the book of Proverbs was written by King Solomon reputed to be the wisest man who ever lived, "Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east country, and all the wisdom of Egypt. For he was wiser than all men; (1 Kings 4:30-31).

What is the best way to train a child? Jesus said in John 14:6; "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life". Teaching a child the ways of Jesus is the best education they could receive. This unfortunately is not compatible with the goals of the UN's Conventions of the Rights of the Child.

To see how drastically times have changed, John Harvard established Harvard University in 1635 primarily as a college to train Puritan ministers. A brochure published in 1643 states the objectives of the college and the reason for its existence: "To advance Learning and perpetuate it to Posterity; dreading to leave an illiterate Ministry to the Churches." Harvard's early motto was Veritas Christo et Ecclesiae "Truth for Christ and the Church." In a directive to its students, it laid out the purpose of all education: "Let every student be plainly instructed and consider well that the main end of his life and studies is to know God and Jesus, which is eternal life. And therefore to lay Christ at the bottom as the only foundation of all sound learning and knowledge."

These are only a very few examples showing the difference between man's wisdom and intent and God's far superior mind. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:9)

WorldNetDaily

United Nations' threat: No more parental rights

Expert: Pact would ban spankings, homeschooling if children object

By Chelsea Schilling February 5, 2009

A United Nations human rights treaty that could prohibit children from being spanked or homeschooled, ban youngsters from facing the death penalty and forbid parents from deciding their families' religion is on America's doorstep, a legal expert warns.

Michael Farris of Purcellville, Va., is president of ParentalRights.org, chairman of the Home School Legal Defense Association and chancellor of Patrick Henry College. He told WND that under the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, or CRC, every decision a parent makes can be reviewed by the government to determine whether it is in the child's best interest.

"It's definitely on our doorstep," he said. "The left wants to make the Obama-Clinton era permanent. Treaties are a way to make it as permanent as stuff gets. It is very difficult to extract yourself from a treaty once you begin it. If they can put all of their left-wing socialist policies into treaty form, we're stuck with it even if they lose the next election."

The 1990s-era document was ratified quickly by 193 nations worldwide, but not the United States or Somalia. In Somalia, there was then no recognized government to do the formal recognition, and in the United States there's been opposition to its power. Countries that ratify the treaty are bound to it by international law.

Although signed by Madeleine Albright, U.S. ambassador to the U.N., on Feb. 16, 1995, the U.S. Senate never ratified the treaty, largely because of conservatives' efforts to point out it would create that list of rights which primarily would be enforced against parents.

The international treaty creates specific civil, economic, social, cultural and even economic rights for every child and states that "the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration." It is monitored by the CRC, which conceivably has enforcement powers.

According to the Parental Rights website, the substance of the CRC dictates the following:

Parents would no longer be able to administer reasonable spankings to their children.

A murderer aged 17 years, 11 months and 29 days at the time of his crime could no longer be sentenced to life in prison.

Children would have the ability to choose their own religion while parents would only have the authority to give their children advice about religion.

The best interest of the child principle would give the government the ability to override every decision made by every parent if a government worker disagreed with the parent's decision.

A child's "right to be heard" would allow him (or her) to seek governmental review of every parental decision with which the child disagreed.

According to existing interpretation, it would be illegal for a nation to spend more on national defense than it does on children's welfare.

Children would acquire a legally enforceable right to leisure.

Teaching children about Christianity in schools has been held to be out of compliance with the CRC.

Allowing parents to opt their children out of sex education has been held to be out of compliance with the CRC.

Children would have the right to reproductive health information and services, including abortions, without parental knowledge or consent.

"Where the child has a right fulfilled by the government, the responsibilities shift from parents to the government," Farris said. "The implications of all this shifting of responsibilities is that parents no longer have the traditional roles of either being responsible for their children or having the right to direct their children."

The government would decide what is in the best interest of a children in every case, and the CRC would be considered superior to state laws, Farris said. Parents could be treated like criminals for making every-day decisions about their children's lives.

"If you think your child shouldn't go to the prom because their grades were low, the U.N. Convention gives that power to the government to review your decision and decide if it thinks that's what's best for your child," he said. "If you think that your children are too young to have a Facebook account, which interferes with the right of communication, the U.N. gets to determine whether or not your decision is in the best interest of the child."

He continued, "If you think your child should go to church three times a week, but the child wants to go to church once a week, the government gets to decide what it thinks is in the best interest of the children on the frequency of church attendance."

He said American social workers would be the ones responsible for implementation of the policies.

Farris said it could be easier for President Obama to push for ratification of the treaty than it was for the Clinton administration because "the political world has changed."

At a Walden University presidential debate last October, Obama indicated he may take action.

"I will review this and other treaties to ensure the United States resumes its global leadership in human rights."

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been a strong supporter of the CRC, and she now has direct control over the treaty's submission to the Senate for ratification. The process requires a two-thirds vote.

Farris said Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., claimed in a private meeting just before Christmas that the treaty would be ratified within two years.

In November, a group of three dozen senior foreign policy figures urged Obama to strengthen U.S. relations with the U.N. Among other things, they asked the president to push for Senate approval of treaties that have been signed by the U.S. but not ratified.

Partnership for a Secure America Director Matthew Rojansky helped draft the statement. He said the treaty commands strong support and is likely to be acted on quickly, according to an Inter Press Service report.

While he said ratification is certain to come up, Farris said advocates of the treaty will face fierce opposition.

"I think it is going to be the battle of their lifetime," he said. "There's not enough political capital in Washington, D.C., to pass this treaty. We will defeat it."

This next article concerns a major set back for the United States in central Asia. Could this be preparation for another one of the "kings of the east". (Revelation 16:12) This is also one of the main bases that is being used for the war in Afghanistan, which again is a war about oil.

Telegraph.UK

US troops ordered out of Kyrgyzstan after Russia deal

Russia has scored a major foreign policy victory after the United States was told to close its last military base in central Asia.

By Adrian Blomfield in Moscow - February 5, 2009

Kurmanbek Bakiyev, the president of Kyrgystan, speaking after talks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow, sounded categorical in his decision announcing he was ordering the eviction of troops from the Manas Air Base near the capital city Bishkek shortly after receiving a multi-billion dollar bailout from the Russian government.

Frantic Pentagon officials initially attempted to deny there were plans afoot to force the United States out of its last Central Asian outpost before issuing a plea to the Kyrgyz government to change its mind.

"Kyrgyzstan will close the US military base in Manas after Washington refused to negotiate better compensation," he said.

An eviction decree was presented to parliament, which will go through the formality of approving it in the next few days.

The collapse of a deal with the Kyrgyz government to continue using Manas, an ex-Soviet base that has been used by US forces since late 2001, is both an embarrassment and a blow to the new administration of President Barack Obama.

The last article this week, which was written by Chris Hedges, concerns the worsening economic situation, particularly as relating to the United States. There is a brief biography about Chris Hedges followed by the article.

Wikapedia

Christopher Lynn Hedges is a journalist and author, specializing in American and Middle Eastern politics and society.

Hedges is currently a senior fellow at The Nation Institute in New York City and a Lecturer in the Council of the Humanities and the Anschutz Distinguished Fellow at Princeton University. He spent nearly two decades as a foreign correspondent in Central America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. He has reported from more than fifty countries, and has worked for The Christian Science Monitor, National Public Radio, The Dallas Morning News, and The New York Times, where he was a reporter for fifteen years.

Hedges was part of The New York Times team that won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for the paper's coverage of global terrorism. In 2002, he received the Amnesty International Global Award for Human Rights Journalism.

It's Not Going to Be OK

By Chris Hedges, February 02, 2009

The daily bleeding of thousands of jobs will soon turn our economic crisis into a political crisis. The street protests, strikes and riots that have rattled France, Turkey, Greece, Ukraine, Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Iceland will descend on us. It is only a matter of time. And not much time. When things start to go sour, when Barack Obama is exposed as a mortal waving a sword at a tidal wave, the United States could plunge into a long period of precarious social instability.

At no period in American history has our democracy been in such peril or has the possibility of totalitarianism been as real. Our way of life is over. Our profligate consumption is finished. Our children will never have the standard of living we had. And poverty and despair will sweep across the landscape like a plague. This is the bleak future. There is nothing President Obama can do to stop it. It has been decades in the making. It cannot be undone with a trillion or two trillion dollars in bailout money. Our empire is dying. Our economy has collapsed.

How will we cope with our decline? Will we cling to the absurd dreams of a superpower and a glorious tomorrow or will we responsibly face our stark new limitations? Will we heed those who are sober and rational, those who speak of a new simplicity and humility, or will we follow the demagogues and charlatans who rise up out of the slime in moments of crisis to offer fantastic visions? Will we radically transform our system to one that protects the ordinary citizen and fosters the common good, that defies the corporate state, or will we employ the brutality and technology of our internal security and surveillance apparatus to crush all dissent? We won't have to wait long to find out.

Always remember there is a way out of the madness this world has become. Jesus said; "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light". (Matthew 11:28-30)

The yoke of the world is bondage and slavery. Jesus yoke is freedom and liberty. If you would like to take the yoke of Jesus and experience this freedom as well as eternal like we invite you to pray this prayer: "Dear Jesus, I want your yoke of freedom and liberty and eternal life. I ask that you please forgive me for my sins and mistakes. I ask you to come into my heart and life and give me eternal life. Help me to be yoked together with you, in Jesus name I pray.

If you would like more information concerning your new life we invite you to write us. If you have a question or problem you need help in solving we also invite you to contact one of our Christian mystics who may be able to channel God's answer for your situation.

God bless you. We love you. Have a great week.

Almondtree Productions

"But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:19)