In the Bible “12″ represents God’s perfect government and Divine authority. To write “12″ in Hebrew two Hebrew letters are used … “yod” which signifies hand or outworking and “beth” which signifies house. “The outworking of the household in harmony under Divine authority.” I am claiming this for each household and our house of worship that we will see God’s authority extended to our territory from our homes and churches.

OH YEAH! AMEN!

Before I started my writing career 18 months ago, I was inspired by a series of documentaries I watched about the founding of our nation and how our founding fathers placed so much importance on Divine Providence. I saw how their faith in God and their devotion to Biblical principles guided them in their pursuit of liberty and freedom for all, not just the wealthy, elite group in which most of them belonged.

Our nation was founded by men who believed in God very strongly and prayed every step of the way; through the years of protesting to King George of England about their grievances; through the horrible years of the Revolutionary War when death, suffering, fear, and want were the order of the day; then through the 11 years it took to actually form a nation, write the Constitution of the United States of America, and have it ratified by the various states.

Those in charge of government, both political parties, vote into law legislation they don’t read. And frankly, they don’t know or care what it says. And then we have the endless array of bureaucrats who justify their jobs by adding to the endless stream of tyrannical rules we are expected to follow, followed up by judges who rule according to their atheistic agenda rather than according to the Constitution.

We have a president who is not constitutionally eligible to serve, yet both parties ignore the Constitution because it is easier to do that than stand up and do what is right. We have state elected officials who ignore the Constitution of the United States, as well as their state Constitution because these documents get in the way of their personal or political party agendas. We have cronyism more blatant than ever before in my life time, total disregard for the citizens of this nation, total disregard for the laws of this nation, and a situation that seems can only be resolved by armed conflict ala 1776. There is another way.

There is an old saying I have heard since I was a small child:

“it is always darkest just before the dawn”.

I have spent many cold dark mornings sitting in a tree waiting for some of Bambi’s family to come strolling into my line of fire and I can vouch for that old saying. As night begins to turn into day it really does seem to get darker and colder for that last hour or so of night. Starlight seems to dim and the night gets so dark I can’t see my hands in front of my face for what seems like a very long period of time.

Then suddenly, I see a twinkling of light, followed by another, and another, until the eastern sky behind me begins to slowly brighten, just a little at a time. Then shadows begin to appear a few at a time. The tree branches seem to take on different shapes as the shadows begin to form and the woods slowly come alive with the sound of squirrels rousting from their nests to go in search of breakfast. I hear birds begin to rustle in their nests and start to chirp; first one, then two, then more as the light begins to creep in and another morning breaks.

I believe 2011 was the darkest hour before the dawn. So many bad things happened in 2011 that it is easy to get discouraged, to become fearful of the future. The year was so dark with the activities of Barack Obama and the Democrat Party, activities that are totally counter to the Constitution, freedom, and our way of life. The Republican Party was no help either, but rather added to the dismay and the darkness. The 87 TEA Party freshmen members of the House of Representatives seemed to buckle at every turn and become part of the problem instead of part of the solution to the problem.

The National Defense Authorization Act (S. 1867/HR 1540) was passed at the last minute and then the two biggest supporters of it came out and casually announced they had no idea what was included in the legislation. “Sodomy and Bestiality are no longer against the rules for our military? The president can order American citizens missing fingers or stocking up on food held without charge indefinitely? I didn’t know that was in there.” We heard that from those “staunch conservatives”, Lindsey Graham and John McCain. Ron Paul, the darling of the “Libertarians”, says Iran should have nukes and that Israel is the root of all evil and isn’t worth our time and money to defend. The national debt that Obama, and the Republicans in Congress, pledged to diminish was instead raised by $2.4 trillion. Mitt Romney, the darling of the Republican establishment, has more positions than a symphony orchestra on any issue you can name. The rest of the candidates aren’t much better. Need I go on or would that depress you even more?

Today we look at a new year fraught with danger yet full of hope. We have elections in November that, if allowed to occur by our benevolent rulers, will determine the difference between a life of freedom and a life of tyranny for We the people. I wrote an article on this subject a couple of months ago in which I listed many of the things that have been done in the name of freedom but actually were done to take our freedom from us. I urged people to take a good look around them and to see what is happening. I have written many times about the issues facing the future freedom of We the People and what we need to do to remedy the problems. I am not politically partisan in my writing. I write truth, not party spin.

Most of our problems go much deeper than government abuse. The problems with government cannot be solved by man alone. God’s hand was prominent in the creation of this great and mighty nation, God’s hand has been prominent in the preservation of this nation, and God’s hand must be prominent in the future of this nation if it is to prosper once again. We as a nation have turned from God and accepted so many things that go against His Word. I remember a prayer given at the beginning of a State of Kansas legislative session a few years ago. I don’t remember all of it but the minister spoke of accepting sin by calling it all kinds of politically correct names. We must turn our eyes back to what made this nation great and acknowledge what has driven this nation to the brink of destruction.

I am encouraged by what I see, hear, and read on the many conservative social network sites I belong to. I am encouraged by the responses to items like this that I write. Even when I write about the bad things happening, I see people who are as outraged as I am and are willing to stand up and do something about it. I see people acknowledging God and His part in our nation. I see people who will pray, as we all need to do, but also stand and act on the promises of God for our lives and our nation. I am encouraged by God’s inspiration in my writing, in my life, and in my nation despite my failings and my sin. I wake up each day with a fresh start and a new grace to live through the day with. All of us have this grace, all we have to do is accept it and act upon it.

In Scripture, 12 is the number of God’s hand on our houses. This revelation gives me hope for this year, 2012, the year God will reach out to us in a way we have not seen before in our lifetimes. All we have to do is reach our hands back to God, accept that divine authority, and work within it to restore our nation. We can’t solve the problems of our nation from the top down, it must be from the bottom up. We can live on trickle down economics but we prosper on trickle up faith. We start with ourselves, move up to our household, then up to our community, our state, and finally our nation. It is each one of us accepting God’s forgiving grace and using the opportunity to make ourselves better first and expanding that improvement into an ever enlarging sphere of influence until it permeates our entire nation and we can once again be that “shining city on a hill” described by John Winthrop in the 1700’s.

This year, 2012, is a year that can turn our nation around if we will step up and do it. It CAN be done and WE can do it. No movement starts with a crowd, but with an idea one person is willing to act upon. This idea becomes known and accepted by another person, then another, then another, until it becomes a movement. The TEA Party is such a movement. It is a concept, coined in a phrase by one man, that has become a concept embraced by 67% of We the People. It is a concept grounded in Godly principles and the acknowledgement that freedom isn’t free and We the people have to stand up for the values that established this nation and made it great.

We are God’s agents in this world and we must operate accordingly. We must seek guidance through prayer and have the courage to act on that guidance when the enemy, both spiritual and physical, comes against us. For too many years Christians have sat back and let evil take control of our nation because we were too complacent or too fearful to fight that evil. We have left it to others to fight our fight and they have not done so. Those we depended on to fight our battles for us have become part of the evil that we are fighting.

This year is the year we have unprecedented help available to us. We can use 2012, the year of “yod beth”, to restore America to what God and our founding fathers established. It is time for us to take up the full armor of God and restore the United States of America to what is once was and what it can be again. If we do not have faith, and the courage of our faith, to fight this battle then our freedoms will be lost forever. It is up to me. It is up to you. It is up to each American citizen to do their part for freedom. Pray, repent, and act; future generations are depending on us.

I submit this in the name of the Most Holy Trinity, in faith, with the responsibility given to me by Almighty God to honor His work and not let it die from neglect.

Bob Russell
Claremore, Oklahoma
January 4, 2012

Harry Reid-the-game-player even went so far as to pull another trick last night in trying to shove this jobs bill down Americans throats against the wishes of the majority of the citizens. He actually voted against Barack Obama’s jobs bill! After all of his ranting and raving up on the Senate floor in trying to rally the Democrats to pass the jobs bill, why in the world would Harry then turn around and vote against it? I,ll let the AP tell you why:

The $447 billion plan died on a 50-49 tally that garnered a majority of the 100-member Senate but fell well short of the 60 votes needed to keep the bill alive. The tally had been 51-48, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., switched his vote to “nay” so that he could force a future revote.

(emphasis mine)

Harry Reid just nuked the U.S. Senate in order to supposedly stop unnecessary debates in the Senate to be able to devote more time to deal with “all of the important business” that they need to do, and yet sets up another waste of time jobs bill vote by changing his own vote. Harry the hypocrite strikes again.

Harry isn’t giving up on ramming Obama’s fake jobs bill down American’s throats, and neither is Barack: “Tonight’s vote is by no means the end of this fight,” Obama said in a statement after the vote. “Because with so many Americans out of work and so many families struggling, we can’t take `no’ for an answer.” Once again, we the people say we will kick anyone out of office voting for this retread of the failed stimulus fraud, and Obama says “we won’t take no for an answer.” Barack also says that any Senator who votes no on this measure should have to look the voters in the eye and explain why they voted against it. Explaining why they honored the wishes of we the people and voted down your fake jobs bill isn’t difficult at all Mr. President, especially while I’m patting my Senators on the back for listening to the hundreds of calls we made demanding that they vote down your Stimulus 2.0. Jobs are needed for all Americans, not just your Union bed-pals and campaign donors. Now that is has been defeated, do you think our President will actually get off the Pass My Jobs Bill campaign trail and do the job he as elected to do in the future? Don’t count on it, as he has stated that he won’t take no for an answer. When we the people vote him out of our White House in 2012, maybe he will wish he had said “YES WE CAN: listen to the people, instead of asking his stage props at his way-too-numerous campaign tours to chant “Four more years.” We can’t take four more years of 9.1% unemployment, big government expansion and the massive push towards Socialism that has come with the hope and change fraud of 2008. We can’t.. and we won’t.

UPDATE: Senator Mike Lee explained to Greta Van Susteren, just why the Jobs Bill failed in the Senate.

Anyone who’s listens to Sean Hannity’s radio show for any length of time knows that one of his taglines is, “three hours a day, every day, that’s all I ask.” This is, of course, because he wants to promote his radio show, as does any other entrepreneur regarding their own business. So what am I asking of you when I ask for 22 minutes per year?

Twenty-two minutes applies to many things. It is the average commute time for most Americans to go to and from work. It is the amount of actual content you get out of an average 30 minute television program. It is also the approximate time that the average adult reader requires to read 6,600 words. This is the approximate length of the current Constitution of the United States, for which today marks the 224th anniversary of the day it was signed.

Put it to you this way; in the time it would take you to enjoy your favorite sitcom, you could read through our entire Constitution.

Now, ask yourself what kind of America would we be living in today if every citizen sacrificed one episode of their favorite sitcom per year and read through the actual Constitution of the United States? What is the percentage of people who have never read through the Constitution all the way? It’s probably similar to the percentage of people who run around screaming about their constitutional rights being violated. The old saying says, “You can’t fix stupid.” However, you CAN fix ignorance.

Is our constitution worth it? Is our country worth it? These are rhetorical questions but necessary nevertheless. How can you truly understand your First Amendment rights if you’ve never read the First Amendment? And judging by the amount of people who actually think that there is a separation of church and state in our Constitution, one can easily guess that many of these people have never actually read over the establishment and free exercise clauses of the First Amendment.

You would think that anyone who has read the second amendment would not have any problems knowing that our founding fathers and framers wanted us to have the right to protect ourselves. When it says, “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed,” it seems rather clear.

It also seems clear, at least to me, that when you read through the Constitution in its entirety, especially the Bill of Rights, that the reader’s perspective is not of the people, but of the government. In other words, our Constitution is told from the people TO the government, not the other way around – hence why the first three words of the preamble are “We the People.”

Read through the Bill of Rights. You will see that it can also be called a bill of “can’ts.” Congress can’t establish a national religion, Congress can’t prohibit the free exercise thereof. Congress can’t violate the freedom of speech, Congress can’t violate freedom of the press or of assembly or our right to petition. Congress can’t quarter troops in our houses without the owner’s consent, nor can they or anyone under the authority of the executive branch come into our houses and search them without either a warrant or probable cause. They can’t try us in private, they can’t try us without a counselor. They can’t make us testify against ourselves, nor can they postpone a speedy and public trial for 30 years.  And perhaps most important – at least in modern times – Congress can’t micromanage aspects of our society that should be left to the states.

Read through amendments 11 to 27 as well. Remember, only four years separated our original Constitution and its first 10 amendments. The other 17 took almost 190 years to come about. And as you read through them, you will discover that many of them are corrections that come from, yes you guessed it, we the people, not us the government or the Supreme Court. In fact, many of them were passed to correct major mistakes of the executive, legislative and judicial branches of our federal government. For instance, if the Supreme Court would have ruled in favor of Dred Scott, there would have been no need for a 13th amendment. If the courts or legislatures would have correctly interpreted the phrase, “all men are created equal,” to include, say, ALL MEN (and women), there would have been no need for a 14th, 15th and 19th amendment. Because the amendment process requires a two thirds majority in both houses of Congress and a three fourths majority of all states, it is the closest thing we have to a national referendum. The government didn’t free the slaves, we the people did. The government didn’t give citizenship and voting rights to all naturally born persons over the age of 18, we the people did. The government didn’t stop poll taxes and other things designed to prevent the poor from voting, we the people did!

The true genius of the Constitution was that the framers knew from the start that it was flawed and needed to be tweaked from time to time. But they also knew from experience that they would need to establish a set of rules above the government’s ability to change them. They knew the sinful nature of man and that, even in a democratic republic, that nature could destroy their new country faster than any invading force could. The Constitution is the ultimate check and balance.

What if? What if the voting public of America (which, by the way, constitutes less than 2% of the people on planet Earth) would actually sit down and read their own constitution – sacrificing 22 minutes out of the 31,536,000 we get per year to read what is perhaps the greatest document ever created by man. How much more informed would the electorate be? And how many more problems that plague us in our society could be solved, not by our government, but once again by We the People?

Have you noticed how the politicians are running and hiding like cockroaches when you turn the light on in a public restroom? What has them so scared? The answer, my friends is, WE THE PEOPLE are the ones that have them running to hide!

While on break, members of congress are holding far less town hall meetings compared to just a few years ago. Almost 70% of Democrats and half of Republicans are not holding town halls. One might assume they are quite possibly a bit afraid of facing the people they represent. We The People- the taxpayers of this great country, who have allowed each one of these elected “leaders” to represent us.

Could it be that they know they have not done the job they were hired to do? Could it be they have had a brief moment of clarity and realize they are going to have to answer for the fact that they have continued to reach into the pockets of the citizens of this nation to finance endeavors despite that fact that they were explicitly told no?  They know they have backed programs that destroy private sector jobs and made government larger. They know We The People DEMANDED that the “usual way of doing things in Washington” had to stop!

They may think they can avoid us and get by without paying the toll they owe, but we have news for them:

“You will pay the piper when your reelection comes!”   

It would serve each of them well to remember what happened to Arlen Specter in 2009 when he held a town hall meeting and was taken to the mat by citizens over the health care “reform”.  Specter’s town hall meeting was not the only town hall meeting that drew harsh criticism from constituents on the health care issue. Many politicians felt the wrath of the common American citizen as they faced the people that elected them to be their voice in Washington.