"A Time For Choosing" Speech
Now let's set the record straight. There's no argument over the choice between peace and war, but there's only one guaranteed way you can have peace—and you can have it in the next second—surrender.
Admittedly, there's a risk in any course we follow other than this, but every lesson of history tells us that the greater risk lies in appeasement, and this is the specter our well-meaning liberal friends refuse to face—that their policy of accommodation is appeasement, and it gives no choice between peace and war, only between fight or surrender. If we continue to accommodate, continue to back and retreat, eventually we have to face the final demand—the ultimatum. And what then—when Nikita Khrushchev has told his people he knows what our answer will be? He has told them that we're retreating under the pressure of the Cold War, and someday when the time comes to deliver the final ultimatum, our surrender will be voluntary, because by that time we will have been weakened from within spiritually, morally, and economically. He believes this because from our side he's heard voices pleading for "peace at any price" or "better Red than dead," or as one commentator put it, he'd rather "live on his knees than die on his feet." And therein lies the road to war, because those voices don't speak for the rest of us.
You and I know and do not believe that life is so dear and peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery. If nothing in life is worth dying for, when did this begin—just in the face of this enemy? Or should Moses have told the children of Israel to live in slavery under the pharaohs? Should Christ have refused the cross? Should the patriots at Concord Bridge have thrown down their guns and refused to fire the shot heard 'round the world? The martyrs of history were not fools, and our honored dead who gave their lives to stop the advance of the Nazis didn't die in vain. Where, then, is the road to peace? Well it's a simple answer after all.
You and I have the courage to say to our enemies, "There is a price we will not pay." "There is a point beyond which they must not advance." Winston Churchill said, "The destiny of man is not measured by material computations. When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we're spirits—not animals." And he said, "There's something going on in time and space, and beyond time and space, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty."
You and I have a rendezvous with destiny.
We'll preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we'll sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness.
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A prayer for this Labor Day.
Dear God of our Christian forefathers, the unseen yet all-powerful Creator of our Union and the Director of its destiny, who alone could “establish the work of our hands for us” (Psalm 90:17):
On this day our nation commemorates the labor of its citizens, though most Americans will view this day simply as another time for vacationing. That is all.
Just the same, from your commands and pledges in the Bible, first of all teach us that ever since the beginning of creation, when you took Adam “and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and to keep it” (Genesis 2:15), it has been your will that man should “labor, working with his hands the thing which is good” (Ephesians 4:28), holding up to us both the dignity and the worth of faithful labor by assuring us, for instance, that the laborer is worthy of his pay (Luke 10:7), and the workman of his food (Matthew 10:10)!
Show us, in addition, that our toils will be a means by which you would supply us with our daily bread! Then encourage us to be diligent in our work with your pledge: “When you eat the labor of your hands, you will be happy, and it will be well with you” (Psalm 128:2)!
Nevertheless, remind us that without putting ourselves first on your side through true repentance of our sins, and also with trust in your gospel pledge of salvation for our guilty souls, even the cleverest of our efforts will be unsuccessful without your approval and your blessing, for “Unless the Lord would build the house, they will labor for nothing who would build it” (Psalm 127:1)! So keep your promise: “Blessed is every one who fears the Lord…. And it will be well with you” (Psalm 128:1)!
To be sure, the highest work which we ever could perform will be to grieve over and to regret our shocking crimes of rebellion against Heaven, and to obtain possession of a pardon from you, by trusting your pledge that Jesus Christ, our Savior, has undergone our sins’ punishment for us.
Indeed, as our divine substitute from above, Christ’s guilt-bearing and punishment-suffering work is the highest labor of love which anyone anywhere ever could do for us, and could and should be commemorated above all else on this day.
Therefore, awaken in us the motive to thank Christ by performing our daily tasks gratefully out of love to the divine Savior “who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood” (Revelation 1:5)!
Finally, help us to solve the question: “What has man for all of his labor, and for the striving of his heart with which he has toiled under the sun? For all of his days are sorrowful, and his work grievous” (Ecclesiastes 2:22-23), by assuring us of your promise of the “rest that remains for the people of God” (Hebrews 4:9), that is, the complete rest in heaven with you!
We pray these things confidently in the Savior’s saving name, since your promises to us are certain. Amen!
Gene Urtel - The Rivertown Press
Amen, Gene. Amen. Thanks for the post. It was an eye open to what Labor Day should be about for professing Christians....though making it a "holy-day/holiday" is against biblical principles in the first place.
Better to die on one's feet than live on one's knees!
That speech gives me goosebumps every time I hear it.
I finally got to inventory my ammo last night. Time to stock up on a few things and time to get rid of some others. I suggest getting all the ammo you can afford and also, wisely fill your pantry. I would rather have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. When things happen, you will see it firsthand just like when a hurricane is coming, the stores get cleaned out and resupply is mighty slow, if resupply happens at all. Just my 2 cents worth.
The last time American troops fought to defend their homes and families, their uniforms were gray and they lost the war. Every war since then has been a war of choice that had nothing to do with defending America. But hey, the government gained more power and the arms merchants got richer.
Hi Matt,
I posted the vid to all in my add. list!!!
III%,
skybil-out
Funny, those same Liberals (read: authoritarians) never seem to want to surrender when it comes to fighting people of the pro-liberty ilk. They just want everyone to surrender to other authoritarians like themselves. Guess they figure it will be easier for them to find work...
As Bill Buppert said recently "war is the health of the state" and also observed recently that America has been at war 222 out of 239 years since 1776.
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