Why did so many CRIME BILLS fail in the New Mexico Legislature?

The Democrats control New Mexico. Why do so many New Mexicans vote for anti-life people? The Dems got their way with a wicked abortion bill, assisted suicide, now maybe pot…Family Values? Quality of Life? Pot over Easter? Money over Easter? Why do so many New Mexicans pick evil over God? Pot over the quality of life for our children. The Governor and her pals are looking for money in all the wrong places. This is not the way to diversify the economy!

With crime out of control, as usual here, the Legislature left a lot of unfinished business…BUT POT IS SO VERY IMPORTANT!

Will New Mexico return to God?

Why did so many CRIME BILLS fail in the New Mexico Legislature?

TO BE CLEAR! When Governor Lujan Grisham became Governor we stopped getting any news releases from the New Mexico Governors office. I have called and not even a call back. However, I do get emails from the Governor to donate to her cause!!!!

FGGAM just received this news release from the New Mexico GOP House:

MLG pushing for ‘holy grail’ pot bill, while blocking Easter holiday again for second year

Santa Fe, NM- House Republican Leader Jim Townsend (Artesia), Whip Rod Montoya (Farmington), and Caucus Chair Rebecca Dow (TorC) questioned Governor Lujan Grisham’s decision to put Easter on the backburner again. Last year the governor’s administration was fiercely criticized after closing churches on Easter Sunday. Now, just days before Palm Sunday, the Governor continues to show her contempt for Holy Week and its significance to traditional New Mexicans. She has once again decided to preempt the Christian holiday, but this time it is to pass her “holy grail” pot legislation.

“Does she realize that it’s Holy Week? We’ll likely end up working through Good Friday or possibly Easter Sunday.” said House Republican Whip Rod Montoya (Farmington). “The governor’s priorities and those of average New Mexicans are 180 degrees out of phase. The public is not in a mad panic to get recreational marijuana legalized, especially when it will cost taxpayers $83,000 a day to do it.”

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Our Dear Friend Chuck Akeley’s post from July of 2019 really hits a homerun for God!

“Legalization” Of Marijuana In New Mexico – Is This Really A Good Idea?

In our country and yes, our state, it has become almost fashionable to support the growth and use of marijuana, whether for medicinal use or recreational use.  So much so, that even our state executive and many legislators consider government sanctioned and controlled distribution of marijuana to be a worthy effort as means to acquire tax dollars.  Let’s consider some of the well-established issues facing New Mexico.  For many years, we’ve been rated at the bottom or almost the bottom for quality of education, children living in poverty, drug use (e.g., opioid use), drug trafficking (I-40, I-10, I-25 and the southern border corridors) and DWI offenders (including the associated deaths).  Is there really wisdom in enhancing these issues by creating a culture of “legalized” use of marijuana here in New Mexico?

A wise man once told me that if you have any doubt as to whether to do or say something, then ask yourself, would you look to Jesus and say “Lord, I do this thing as unto You” or “Lord, I give You thanks for this which I am about to do.”  If the answer is no, then why are you doing it?  Would you ask Jesus to bless your firing up of a joint or bowl or eating of a laced edible so that you would experience a high?  The scripture says we should seek His wisdom.  According to Proverbs 4:7, “[w]isdom is the principal thing; [t]herefore get wisdom [NKJV].”  Ephesians 5:15-21 instructs us to walk in wisdom:  “[s]ee then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.  Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.  And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ [NKJV].”  Just because we CAN do something doesn’t necessarily mean we SHOULD do something.

My background includes a few years as a Special Agent with the USAF Office of Special Investigations, during which much of the training involved drug enforcement.  I spent the first year after completing the initial academy leading the Travis AFB, CA Joint Drug Enforcement Team and subsequently worked for several years at Holloman AFB, NM participating in drug enforcement operations with the other agents.  Once you have strapped on the equipment and executed a few warrants, you tend to develop a very different perspective about “low level drug use,” as the small amounts of drugs came from someone who was probably not your next door neighbor, and that person’s drugs came from a trafficker – a very dangerous person.  The perspective that I’m not hurting anyone is a big lie.  It is not surprising to me that the military and local or state police have had to lower standards in order to acquire acceptable cadets.  Today, our children and youth often do things as a result of cultural or peer influences which can devastate future employment opportunities.  How much worse it is when our children’s parents are the ones modeling this behavior?  I thank God that our Lord is forgiving and merciful, and am reminded that we are called to forgive others and to help guide our friends, family and others unto salvation and into their God-given destiny!

It’s interesting to hear discussions about “legalizing” recreational use of marijuana at the state level.  If a state allows something that is forbidden at the federal level, it is not really legal, but what is happening is that the federal government has elected, as a matter of enforcement discretion, to refrain from seeking prosecution under certain circumstances and the state has elected to ignore existing federal code or statutes.  The federal Controlled Substances Act (“CSA”), 21 USC 812, establishes five schedules of controlled substances, identified as Schedules I, II, III, IV and V.  Schedule I lists substances that have been determined to have:  1) a high potential for abuse; 2) no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States; and 3) a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or substance under medical supervision.  The psychoactive substance in marijuana, tetrahydrocannabinol (“THC”), remains to this day a listed Schedule I substance.  Because of this, many states have struggled with the medicinal and recreational use of marijuana and declare legality, when in point of fact, what is occurring is simply enforcement discretion at the federal level and a glaring lack of willingness of the federal government to take a solid position one way or the other.

There is MUCH remaining to be said about this issue, including the increasing levels of THC in modern-grown marijuana plants provided by dispensaries and technologically-advanced illicit grows, the lack of clear means for law enforcement to easily determine the degree of driving impairment compared to determining alcohol impairment, the effect that such has or may have on us developmentally, mentally and physically, the wisdom and procedure for assuring sound regulatory controls at the federal and state level – and assuming this issue isn’t going away quickly, the spiritual implications of encouraging, yet another mind altering substance for use by our residents, demonstrating yet again, the wisdom of man in the face of the wisdom of God.

Father, in the name of Jesus, I ask that You would speak to the hearts of those in a position to encourage, allow, regulate and/or spend tax dollars on marijuana matters in our beautiful State of New Mexico (and across this nation).  Give us ears to hear and eyes to see what is the will of God.  May wisdom guide our discussions and determinations, with a mighty hedge of protection over all who are doing Your will and serving Your people, in light of this challenge.  But regardless, help us to always love.  Always.  Amen.

Chuck Akeley

Albuquerque, New Mexico

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From Dr. Jim Denison:

Evangelicals classified as “extremists” Courage is especially vital for those who follow Jesus in our post-Christian (some would say anti-Christian) culture. A Marine Corps officer warned Congress this week against classifying Christians in the military as “religious extremists.” Mike Berry, who is also general counsel for the First Liberty Institute, noted that a US Army Reserve training presentation on religious extremism lists al-Qaeda, Hamas, and the Ku Klux Klan as “groups that use or advocate violence to accomplish their objectives and are therefore rightly classified as extremists.” However, Berry added that evangelical Christianity and Catholicism were also included in the presentation as “extremists.” He stated, “The Pentagon cannot possibly believe that because Evangelical Christians and Catholics hold fast to millennia-old views on marriage and human sexuality, they should be labeled as ‘extremists’ and deemed unfit to serve.” And Jack Phillips is back in the news. The Colorado baker who won a partial victory at the Supreme Court three years ago for refusing to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple went on trial Monday in yet another lawsuit. This one involves a “birthday” cake for a transgender woman. “Antibodies to the virus of indifference” Courage has always been at the heart of Christian discipleship. When the angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she would be the mother of God’s Son, she replied, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). She would risk her marriage, her future, and perhaps even her life to obey God’s call. And the world would forever be changed by her courageous service. (For more, please see the video I recorded yesterday: “How to have the power of God to fulfill the purpose of God,” embedded below.)

Service often requires such courage, but it always makes a difference that transcends its cost. In Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future, Pope Francis responds to the coronavirus pandemic by applauding healthcare workers who died fighting the disease: “They did not prefer saving their own lives to saving others’. So many of the nurses, doctors, and caregivers paid that price of love, as did priests and religious and ordinary people whose vocation is service. We return their love by grieving for them and honoring them. “Whether or not they were conscious of it, their choice testified to a belief: that it is better to live a shorter life serving others than a longer one resisting that call. That’s why, in many countries, people stood at their windows or on their doorsteps to applaud them in gratitude and awe. They are the saints next door who have awoken something important in our hearts, making credible once more what we desire to instill by our preaching. “They are the antibodies to the virus of indifference. They remind us that our lives are a gift and we grow by giving of ourselves: not preserving ourselves but losing ourselves in service. “What a sign of contradiction to the individualism and self-obsession and lack of solidarity that so dominate our wealthier societies! Could these caregivers, sadly gone from us now, be showing us the way we must now rebuild?” When faith comes at a cost Are you paying a price to follow Jesus in our fallen world? If not, why not? We don’t need to encourage persecution, of course, but we should not be surprised when it comes. Jesus told us, “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account” (Matthew 5:11). Notice that he said when, not if. When our faith comes at a cost, we can ask Jesus for the courage we need to be faithful. We can ask for the strength to love and pray for our enemies (Matthew 5:44). We can ask for the compassion to forgive as we have been forgiven (Ephesians 4:32). Scottish theologian and minister John Baillie prayed: “As I lean on his cross may I not refuse my own; but rather may I bear it by the strength of his.” Will you make his prayer yours today?

NOTE: This is the final week you can request my book, Blessed: Eight Ways Christians Change Culture, which includes the new, bonus Blessed Small Group Study Guide. This special resource focuses our attention on the eight Beatitudes, and the goal of exploring these timeless principles is simple: to align our lives with their truth so fully that they define our character—and empower our influence as culture-changing Christians. The Blessed book and study guide is my gift to thank you for your donation to help more believers discern the news differently. So please request it before time runs out—and accept my deep thanks for your generosity.

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Dr. Jim Denison is the CVO of Denison Forum Through The Daily Article email newsletter and podcast, DenisonForum.org, social media, interviews, and articles across the internet, Denison Forum reaches 2.2 million culture-changing Christians every month.

I’m standing with Jesus and Cheering for Oral Roberts University!

Oral Roberts University’s basketball team has advanced to the Sweet Sixteen with stunning wins over No. 2 seed Ohio State and No.7 Florida. ORU is only the second 15 seed in NCAA tournament history to get so far.

ORU Coach Paul Mills put things in perspective and brought in the gospel message at the same time.

“In 100 years, none of us will be here. And what our guys need to understand is we’re really not that important. And you need to know that,” Mills said in a press conference.

USA Today Columnist Calls for NCAA to Boot ORU for Biblical Beliefs