Monday, May 10, 2010

Immigration Reform

--Where do you stand?—

There’s a lot of confusion regarding illegal immigration today. Many have formed opinions or taken a position based on media reports and political debates. Let’s ascend above this for a minute and consider some other perspective.

A lot of Americans have never even seen a Mexican alien. Most everyone has seen Latino tourists spending mucho dinero but not hard working, family loving aliens. Others have established a stereotype based on a very narrow perspective.

Personally, I have seen both extremes. I know people who are actively involved in helping aliens. I also know deer hunters that have told me they use aliens for target practice when they’re crossing down their hunting lease. Some hunters set traps for them while others leave their cabin doors unlocked with food on their shelves for them to come in and eat while they’re out.

The Bible has a lot to say about aliens. The Hebrew meaning of the word alien points to a sojourner that lives in constant fear because of his status. Exodus 22:21 says, “Do not mistreat an alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in Egypt.” Zechariah 7:10 reads, “Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor…”

Personally, I’m a third generation and my wife is a fourth generation American. Our grandchildren are fifth and sixth generation our great granddaughter is seventh generation American. (Our forefathers were on this side of the border before the Southwest was part of the USA.) Despite this, I know the feeling of living in fear and intimidation during my growing up years as I visited parts of my native city where I wasn’t welcomed.

How can we secure our borders and deal with illegal immigration in a prudent and humane way? Simple–God has blessed America with incredible genius. When we pool knowledgeable people with a caring heart together, there is a spark of the miraculous that emanates from these interactions. Sure, things get heated at times because iron sharpens iron and sparks fly all over the place. But we ascend to even higher planes through these interactions.

We need to challenge our local and state leaders to put pressure on our national leaders so that they might begin to identify leaders in different fields of our society to address this issue. We do not want a bunch of politicians to control this operative. We need professors, lawyers, physicians, plumbers, carpenters, scientists, school teachers, housewives, ranchers, farmers. We also need theologians and philosophers from among our Jewish and Christian communities. Not to forget–we urgently need grassroots folks of different ethnicities to sit alongside these elite thinkers of our day; and to come up with recommendations that can serve the needs of our citizenry as well as the aliens that have always and shall always live among us.

Above all, we need to put God and godly people in the middle of this. We’ll need an army of people praying all across our nation. Failure to do this in a humane manner could spell chaos and a possible insurrection that’ll only maximize our problems all across our 2000 mile U.S.-Mexican border.

We can’t afford to alienate over 500 million neighbors to the south of us because of arrogance or fear. America is going to need all the friends it can get within our hemisphere as more and more nations are antagonistic towards us and some are developing methods of mass destruction such as nuclear and chemical and biological technologies–all aimed at us!

Me? I’m for laws and procedures that are just as well as merciful. Let’s not forget that most of us are the descendants of aliens from the four corners of the earth. Some of us have been here a bit longer while others have seemingly been here forever.

Finally, let’s remember what the Christian New Testament says about father Abraham within this same context. -- By faith he made his home in the Promised Land like a stranger (alien) in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. Hebrew 11:9-10.

It’s time to serve as lights beaming in the darkness of today’s national crises. We’re either part of the problem or part of the solution.

Shalom,

Dell

PS, Please visit my website at www.4sephardim.com. Pray for us and help us continue to beam the message of truth by reading my books and viewing my instructional DVDs. Also consult my blog at: www.obadiahsrevelationtoday.blogspot.com.