It was heartbreaking this week to see videos of hundreds of people - men, women and children - in Afghanistan risking their lives trying to get onto a U.S. jet that was moving toward takeoff Some of them continued to try to hang on even as the plane began to ascend. Now there are droves of people - Many of them Americans sleeping in orchards and opium fields, moving from house to house just trying to stay alive. Freedom is a precious commodity, and we still have it here in America, but the events in Afghanistan should remind us that we can't take this freedom for granted.

I want to share with you now some insights from President Reagan on that topic
(1) Freedom is no more than one generation from extinction. We didn't pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. The only way they can inherit the freedom we've known is if we fight for it, protect it, defend it, and then hand it to them with lessons in their lifetime to do the same. And if we don't do this, then we may well spend our sunset years telling our children and our grandchildren what it was once like in America when men were free.
(2) One of the traditional methods of imposing statism or Socialism on people has been by way of medicine. It's very easy to disguise a medical program as a humanitarian project;
(3) If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. The idea that Government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except from the people, is still the most unique idea in all the long history of the world. The issue is whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we accept that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.
(4) There are those in America today who have come to depend on government for their security. And when government fails they seek to rectify that failure by granting government more power. So as government has failed to control crime & violence with the means given to it by the Constitution, they seek to give it more power at the expense of the Constitution.

(5) Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.

(6) If we look to the answer as to why for so many years we achieved so much and prospered as no other people on earth, it was because here in this Land we unleashed the energy and the genius of the individual to a greater extent than had ever been done before.

AMEN! (Saturday was the 110th anniversary of the birth of our 40th President, Ronald Reagan).

Now to close on a humorous note; One Sunday a pastor told the congregation that the church needed some extra money and asked the people to prayerfully consider giving a little extra in the offering plate. He said that whoever gave the most would be able to pick out 3 hymns.

After the offering plates were passed, the pastor glanced down and noticed that someone had placed a $1,000 bill in the offering. He was excited about this and he immediately shared his joy with the congregation, and he said he'd like to personally thank the person who placed that money in the election plate. A rather shy elderly lady in the back raised her hand.

The pastor asked her to come to the front. Slowly she made her way to the pastor. He told her how wonderful it was that she gave so much, and in thanks asked her to pick out three hymns. Her eyes brightened as she looked over the congregation, pointed to the three handsomest men in the building, and said, "I'll take Him, and Him, and Him." Have a GREAT Day!