Your Heart is Showing

 

Most folks believe Karl Marx was an atheist. However, honest inspection of his words and actions reveal the truth that He believed in God and he hated Him. With his heart set against God, Marx became the target of Satan's affection and in his own words, Marx gave his heart to the devil.

"Thus Heaven I’ve forfeited, 
I know it full well. 
My soul, once true to God, 
Is chosen for Hell." - Karl Marx

Why did Jesus make such a big deal about loving God with all of our heart? Because we were made to enjoy and respond to the overwhelming, everlasting, loving heart of God. Whoever or whatever has our heart is revealed in our words and actions...

"For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." - Luke 12:34

Karl Marx believed the devil had his heart. His Satan-inspired words and actions have influenced many who have not guarded their hearts and through them have brought much tyranny and misery to our fallen world.

Who has your heart? It shows in the way you are influencing and impacting the lives of others...

"No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us." - 1 John 4:12

Is there someone close to you who needs to experience God's love today? Be aware, to them, your heart is showing!

Revival Requires a Return to Righteous Royalty

We've been here before. In America we seem to be particularly vulnerable to worshiping our government instead of the One who truly has endowed us with our unalienable rights. We can look to history, with an honest and sincere desire to see the truth, and discover how our forebears were delivered from a precarious and foreboding time much like we are immersed in today.

Samuel Adams gave his American Independence speech shortly before the fifty-six Founders signed the Declaration of Independence. In this prophetic speech Adams said, 

“We have explored the temple of royalty (regarding many previous appeals to King George), and found that the idol we have bowed down to has eyes which see not, ears that hear not our prayers, and a heart like the nether millstone. We have this day restored the Sovereign, to whom alone men ought to be obedient.... From the rising to the setting sun, may His kingdom come.”

 The direction is clear. Who will lead the way? Those of us who have experienced the forgiveness, healing, and deliverance of the Lord as a result of our personal repentance and surrender to Him through Jesus Christ know the way back to where we belong. Let's echo the cry of the prophets throughout our great land once again...

"Come, let us return to the LORD. He has torn us to pieces; now he will heal us. He has injured us; now he will bandage our wounds." - Hosea 6:1

“Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; For I am God, and there is no other." - Isaiah 45:22

Is there someone in your life that you can nudge, inspire, redirect toward the One True God today? Become a part of the revival of America.

American Greatness Springs from Humble Leadership

President Abraham Lincoln’s words in the dark days of the Civil War speak to us today: 

"We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever known. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us! It behooves us then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins and to pray for clemency and forgiveness." - Abraham Lincoln, Proclamation of a National Fast Day, March 30, 1863.

As we pray for revival in our land, let's ask the Lord to raise up the kind of humble, God fearing leaders like Abraham Lincoln that have challenged us as God's people to obey God's call to prayer...

"If my people, who bear my name, will humble themselves, pray, seek my face and turn from their evil ways, I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin and heal their land." - 2Ch 7:14.

 A humble, honest look into HIStory reveals the truth that God responds to this kind of prayer, and just as He did before, HE will make America great again.

Precursor to the American Covenant

 

When things go wrong it seems the smart thing to do is stop, look for the cause, make corrections, and get back on course. It's obvious that things are going wrong here in America. As a nation and as individual citizens, we no longer live together like we believe that we are all created equal and endowed by our Creator with the unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We no longer see the role of government as being limited by a constitution to protecting those rights, but we increasingly see government as our enemy, threatening on many sides to take away our rights. It seems it's time to stop, make some corrections and get back on course.

But just where is the course? To rediscover the course that America should be on, a good place to start might be to re-examine our earliest agreements as they are the precursors of our American Constitution. Here's a glimpse of the Mayflower Compact, the first written, signed agreement between Christian and non-Christian citizens of the new colony of Plymouth...

"Having undertaken, for the Glory of God, and advancements of the Christian faith, and the honor of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the Northern parts of Virginia; do by these presents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God, and one another; covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic; for our better ordering, and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience."

The Mayflower compact is the first American covenant, between God and a group of men and women beginning life together in a new world. These forefathers and foremothers were bound together by a covenant to glorify God because they assumed that as individuals, they all existed for the glory of God. This belief was so strong that both Christians and non-Christians understood and accepted this truth...

"The heavens declare the glory of God, and the expanse proclaims the work of His hands." - Psalm 19:1

The course is clear. A rededication to the American Covenant is the best hope for a revival of the vitality of our dear republic. But before nations make such course-corrections, individual citizens must make a personal covenant to live for the glory of God...

"Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God" - 1 Corinthians 10:31

Thus, to pray for revival in America is to pray for a personal rededication to living in both words and actions for the glory of God, and to pray for the salvation of lost souls that they may be freed to enter into the personal covenant that is the precursor to the American covenant.

 

The Interposing Hand of Heaven

 

"I take a particular pleasure in acknowledging that the interposing hand of Heaven, in the various instances of our extensive preparations for this operation, has been most conspicuous and remarkable." - Washington, Letter to Thomas McKean, President of Congress, November 15, 1781

George Washington's reflections on the most conspicuous and remarkable providence of God in the events leading up to the surrender of Lord General Cornwallis at Yorktown are the result of the following divine activity...

1. If General Washington had not decided to leave New York and march to Yorktown when he did, Cornwallis would have been reinforced.

2. If Robert Morris, the generous and capable merchant, had not used extraordinary means to raise money to pay Washington’s troops, they would have gone home rather than to Yorktown.

3. If France had not sent a fleet from the West Indies (unknown to Washington), which arrived just in time to defeat the British fleet sent to relieve General Cornwallis at Yorktown, Cornwallis could have escaped. In this battle, the French fleet, under Admiral de Grasse, soundly defeated the British, cutting off all sea routes.

4. If a sudden tornado-like storm had not stopped Lord Cornwallis in his last-minute attempt on October 16, 1781, to cross the York River and escape to New York, the war would have dragged on. - Marshall Foster, The American Covenant, the Untold Story.

Praying for revival is inviting the interposing Hand of Heaven to  break into the chaos and conflict of our nation once again. Such a request should be natural and urgent when it comes from the heart of believers who have experienced the providential Hand of God in their own lives...

"If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land." - 2 Chronicles 7:14.

Where in your heart, your home, your community, and your nation do you urgently need the interposing Hand of Heaven today?

Our Only Real Hope

 

Alexander Solzhenitsyn , in his acceptance speech for the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion (May 1983), summarized our present state well when he said...

"We are witnesses to the devastation of the world, be it imposed or voluntarily undergone. The entire twentieth century is being sucked into the vortex of atheism and self-destruction . This plunge into the abyss has aspects that are unquestionably global, dependent neither on political systems, nor on levels of economic and cultural development, nor yet on national peculiarities... Different parts of the world have followed different paths, but today they are all approaching the threshold of a common ruin.

Solzhenitsyn ended his sobering address in London by directing us toward the only hope for the reformation our world, a revival of our relationship with God...

"Instead of the ill-advised hopes of the last two centuries, which have reduced us to insignificance and brought us to the brink of nuclear and non-nuclear death, we can only reach with determination for the warm hand of God , which we have so rashly and self-confidently pushed away. If we did this, our eyes would be opened to the errors of this unfortunate twentieth century and our hands could be directed to set them right. There is nothing else to cling to in the landslide: all the thinkers of the Enlightenment can give us nothing."

As we pray for revival in America, we must be ready and willing to obey the Lord's command to help others reach with determination for the warm hand of God...

"Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." - Matthew 28:19

Who can you introduce to Jesus today? 

One Nation Under God

French sociologist Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) traveled to the United States in 1831 to study its prisons and returned with a wealth of broader observations that he codified in “Democracy in America” (1835), an unbiased reflection on the great American experiment in self-government. De Tocqueville cited the First Connecticut Code as an example of the strong connection between faith and civil law in America.

In May of 1650, the General Court of Connecticut adopted what became known as the First Connecticut Code. The code was the result of work undertaken by Roger Ludlow, who, in 1646, set out to amend the preexisting Capital Laws of 1642, which were mostly borrowings from those of neighboring Massachusetts. In De Tocqueville's own words... 

"Nothing is both more singular and more instructive than the legislation of this period; there above all one finds the password to the great social enigma that the United States presents to the world in our day. Among these memorials, we particularly distinguish, as one of the most characteristic, the code of laws that the little state of Connecticut passed in 1650."

De Tocqheville noted that the legislators of Connecticut occupied themselves first with penal laws; and, to compose them, they conceived the strange idea of drawing from sacred texts... 

“'If any man [after legal conviction], shall have or worship any other God but the Lord God,' they say to begin with, 'he shall be put to death.' There follow ten or twelve provisions of the same nature, borrowed from the texts of Deuteronomy, Exodus, and Leviticus. Blasphemy, sorcery, adultery, and rape are punished by death; insult done by a son to his parents is struck with the same penalty. In this way they carried the legislation of a rude and half-civilized people into the heart of a society whose spirit was enlightened and mores mild; so one never saw the death penalty laid down more profusely in the laws, or applied to fewer of the guilty."

When he considered the development of civil laws here in America, De Tocqueville cited the actions of the pilgrims' belief that they were citizens and subjects of God first, and of the king of England second...

"Thus it is often difficult, in running through the first historical and legislative memorials of New England, to perceive the bond that attaches the emigrants to the country of their ancestors. One sees them at each instant performing an act of sovereignty; they name their magistrates, make peace and war, establish police regulations, give themselves laws, as if they came under God alone."

America has always prospered when we all agreed and lived as "One nation under God". Praying for revival is praying for a personal and nation return to the indispensable Biblical truth...

"For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ" - Philippians 3:20

The Happiest Society Never Forgets

"Finally, let us not forget the religious character of our origin. Our fathers were brought [here] by their high veneration for the Christian religion. They journeyed by its light, and labored in its hope. They sought to incorporate its principles with the elements of their society, and to diffuse its influence through all their institutions, civil, political, or literary. Let us cherish these sentiments, and extend this influence still more widely, in the full conviction, that that is the happiest society which partakes in the highest degree of the mild and peaceful spirit of Christianity."- Daniel Webster (1848). “Speeches and Forensic Arguments”, p.56

Daniel Webster said, "Let us not forget". Our forgetfulness has caught up to us. The evidence is overwhelming. He noted the connection here between happiness and partaking the mild and peaceful spirit of Christianity.

"He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments." - Ps 78:5-7

Isn't it yet time for the family and the church to come together and remind our children about the works of God? Isn't it indeed the works of God that they are studying throughout the day in school? Is there any subject under the sun that is not a work of God?

May the Lord have mercy on me and my generation for our failure to obey His command to teach our children the testimony of God that is revealed in all of His mighty creation...

"The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship." --Psalm 19:1

The peace and happiness we have lost can be recovered and offered to the next generation if we will repent and obey today. 

George Washington, Deist?

 

Along with most current public school and university curriculum, Biographer Barry Schwartz has stated that George Washington's "practice of Christianity was limited and superficial, because he was not himself a Christian. In the enlightened tradition of his day, he was a devout Deist". 

DEISM, noun [Latin God.] The doctrine or creed of a deist; the belief or system of religious opinions of those who acknowledge the existence of one God, but deny revelation: or deism is the belief in natural religion only, or those truths, in doctrine and practice, which man is to discover by the light of reason, independent and exclusive of any revelation from God. Hence deism implies infidelity or a disbelief in the divine origin of the scriptures.

An honest study of history with an unbiased ear for the truth reveals a different reality. Here is a reflection on the colonial army's defeat of the British at Yorktown, in Washington's own words... "

"I take a particular pleasure in acknowledging that the interposing hand of Heaven, in the various instances of our extensive Preparation for this Operation [Yorktown], has been most conspicuous and remarkable." - Letter to Thomas McKean, President of Congress, November 15, 1781

 It's obvious that Washington was very aware of and responsive to the "hand of Heaven" clearly revealed in the intervening and providential presence and work of God. A closer, truth-seeking study of history confirms the indispensable and very timely truth that God confirms his Word and reveals Himself as He...

"removes kings and sets up kings." - Daniel 2:21

Keep on seeking the truth my friends, to be free from the deception of this current age, to grow in your awareness of God's revelation and intervention in your world, and to be set apart and available to be used of God everyday. 

The Twin Pillars of Our Faith and Our Republic

 

Jedidiah Morse-clergyman, geographer, and father of the painter and inventor Samuel Morse-was a significant figure in post­ Revolutionary New England. Through his popular geography texts, he described the new nation to Americans. As a prominent Congregationalist minister, he involved himself deeply in the heated religious controversies of his day. In an election sermon in 1799, Dr. Jedediah Morse reminds us of our part in the preservation of our Christian form of government:

“Whenever the pillars of Christianity shall be overthrown, our present republican forms of government, and all the blessings which flow from them, must fall with them.”

The pillars of Christianity…

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

The founders of our great republic believed that a people who obeyed these two commandments internally, in the heart, would need no other external law. Sadly, conditions today confirm the prophetic words of early American geographer and minister Dr. Jedediah Morse. 

Do our personal lives affirm that we stand on a foundation supported by the twin pillars of both our faith and our republic?

God Says, "You Make Me Laugh"

 

God laughs when anyone plots against Him...

"The kings of the earth prepare for battle; 

the rulers plot together against the LORD and against his anointed one...

 

But the one who rules in heaven laughs." - Ps 2:2,4

God laughs when our enemies come against us...

"The wicked plot against the godly; they snarl at them in defiance.

But the Lord just laughs." - Ps 37:12-13

God laughs when governments oppose Him... 

"O LORD God of Heaven's Armies, the God of Israel, wake up and punish those hostile nations. Listen to the filth that comes from their mouths; their words cut like swords.

'After all, who can hear us?' they sneer.

But LORD, you laugh at them." - Ps 59:5,7-8

God laughs when sinners refuse to repent...

"I called you so often, but you wouldn't come. I reached out to you, but you paid no attention.

 You ignored my advice and rejected the correction I offered.

So I will laugh when you are in trouble!" - Pr 1:24-26

The rebellious world around us knows well how to make God laugh, but true disciples know so much more. We know that as we love and glorify Him, we discover how to make God so happy that He sings over us with joy...

"For the LORD your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.” -Zeph 3:17

The Source of True Authority

 

Instead of Christians waiting for the Lord to return, God is waiting for the church to step into its role of taking the authority of Jesus and doing damage to Satan’s kingdom. Not by political or human energy and power, but by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus went on to reveal the source of our authority. It lies in His authority over all of God's enemies. He exercised this authority in His most humble and glorious work on Calvary's cross. There He disarmed and humiliated all of His enemies...

"And when he had disarmed the rulers and the authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in the cross" (Colossians 2:15).

Jesus has revealed the pathway to true authority and power over our every opposing person and circumstance, natural or spiritual. It comes to us when we follow His example,  refocus our attention from the imposing enemy, and humbly set our hearts and minds on the reality of our position in Him...

"However, stop rejoicing because the spirits are submitting to you. Instead, rejoice because your names are written in heaven" (Luke 10:20).

Rejoice today, despite your trials, that you are a child of God, seated with Christ in Heavenly places, far above the temporal affairs of this day and of this world. Surrender to your Father's overwhelming love, never ending mercy, and always working grace, and begin experiencing the authority and power of your victorious, resurrected life in Christ!

Outright Rebellion

What’s it like living with no God-centered hope or truth? It often leads to foolish, incoherent, and outright rebellion against God. Here’s an example…

In the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly’s newest commercial, one of the most heartbreaking and confusing parts of the ad is this statement: 

"Because the body you are randomly assigned at birth shouldn't determine how well you are cared for." 

This voice-over is heard while showing a woman with double mastectomy scars wearing an open robe and identifying as a man.

In using the term “randomly assigned” Lilly is  inadvertently, foolishly, or rebelliously conceding that we have a Creator, or at least an Assigner. But at the same time they are encouraging rejection of the Assigner’s body choice. This is not atheism. It is outright rebellion against God.

The truth is we are lovingly and purposefully created in the image of our loving and purposeful Creator and given a full, loving, and purposeful life in Him…

“Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it” (Ps 139:14).

“For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago” (Eph 2:10).

“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope” (Jer 29:11).

Seek and believe the truth. It will help you recognize and set you free from the foolish, incoherent, and outright rebellion of this fallen world. 

No Better Foundation

 

While it's true that America was not founded as or intended to be a Christian nation, there is overwhelming and confirming evidence that she was founded on and created to function according to Biblical truth. This fact was echoed as recently as the 1950's in a prophetic warning from a recent president.

President Harry Truman laid out the case for America’s Biblical foundations in a speech in 1950. He stood against the redacted, anecdotal, revisionist histories sweeping into America’s schools from John Dewey and the progressive, socialist academics of the time. He foresaw what could happen if we forgot our covenant with the Almighty. He said, 

The fundamental basis of this nation’s laws was given to Moses on the Mount. The fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the teachings we get from Exodus and St. Matthew, from Isaiah and St. Paul. I don’t think we emphasize that enough these days. If we don’t have a proper fundamental moral background, we will finally end up with a totalitarian government which does not believe in rights for anybody except the State.

There is no better foundation for a nation or an individual than the Word of God...

"The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever" (Psalm 119:160).

Revival in America will follow revival in the hearts of Christ followers. A national return to God will follow our return to a holy reverence and obedience to His enduring Word.

Recognizing and Rejecting Racism

 

Patrick Henry's famous give me liberty or give me death speech was not the only profound, future-shaping declaration to come from the oldest assembly of elected representatives in the American colonies. On June 12, 1776, the Virginia House of Burgesses approved George Mason’s great declaration, which states in Section 1: 

"That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity, namely the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety."

It was subsequently used by many of the colonies as the basis of their declarations and it was undoubtedly one of the documents that influenced Thomas Jefferson as he wrote the Declaration of Independence. 

Listening to it today, in the light of the many issues that are dividing and turning us against ourselves, I am moved to consider a fresh, personal definition of racism:

For me, racism is the refusal to listen to and compassionately try to understand the expression of anyone that is feeling deprived of the God-given right of life, liberty, means of acquiring and possessing property, happiness, and safety just because they are different from me.

Whenever we who call ourselves Christians commit this sin, we are scandalizing the name and reputation of Jesus Christ who left Heaven and came to Earth in order to listen to, understand, and restore to us the blessings of life, liberty, happiness, and safety that come with a justified and intimate relationship with the One that created us and endowed us with such blessings:

"Don't forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders. You were called "uncircumcised heathens" by the Jews, who were proud of their circumcision, even though it affected only their bodies and not their hearts. In those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope. But now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ" (Ephesians 2:11-13).

As we pray the popular revival prayer of 2 Chronicles 7:14, perhaps God will show those of us who are called by His name where He's calling us to turn from our wicked way of racism. As we respond, not only will He fulfill His promise to hear from Heaven and heal our land, our friends and enemies alike, will notice!

The True Power of Freedom

 

When Connecticut's colonial Governor Jonathan Trumbull proclaimed April 19, 1775, as a day of prayer, fasting, and repentance, he did not anticipate the momentous events that would be taking place at Lexington, just north of Connecticut that very morning! His proclamation asked...

"That God would graciously pour out His Holy Spirit on us to bring us to a thorough Repentance and effectual Reformation that our iniquities may not be our ruin: that He would restore, preserve, and secure the Liberties of this and all the other British American colonies, and make the Land a mountain of Holiness, and Habitation of Righteousness forever."

On April 19, 1775, the British detachment of soldiers arrived at Lexington Green to find the town’s militia assembled and ready to defend their community. The Battle of Lexington, brief as it was, gave the patriots at Concord the time they needed to collect their arms and ammunition and hide them carefully, as well as to muster their militia. The Minute Men defended themselves well. They forced the British into a disorderly retreat. By the time the British reached Charlestown, they were on the run and only narrowly missed being defeated by seven hundred militia bearing down on them just as they reached the shelter of the British fleet.

On that day, the British lost 273 men, the American militiamen ninety-three. But if the Lexington farmers had not made their stand, thus buying time for Concord— if Revere had not reached Hancock and Adams in time to warn them— in short, if Providence had not intervened several times, the day would have been a total disaster for the Americans.

We note that Governor Trumbull's proclamation does not identify the British as America's primary enemy. Rather it points to the need for repentance and reformation here in the colonies, "that our iniquities may not be our ruin".

A close, honest examination of the whole story behind the shot heard around the world reveals a timeless and certainly timely scriptural truth. The real enemy today is not liberal or conservative, socialist or capitalist, Russia or China, pro choice or pro life, black or white, or any other political, social, economic, emotional agenda or conviction that seems to be the source of anger, discrimination, division, hatred, and violence. The real enemy is still our iniquity, our sin, but sin has already been conquered...

"And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death" (Romans 8:2).

Notice, the "power" that gives freedom from the "power of sin" belongs to those who "belong to him", that is Jesus Christ. The colonial patriots firmly believed an important Biblical truth that we must remember and loudly proclaim to our suffering nation today, that the true power to defeat our real enemy is available to anyone who is born of God through faith in Jesus Christ... 

"Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him" (1 John 5:1).

The first step toward the revival of peace and justice in America is a repentant step toward Jesus Christ, and through faith in Jesus Christ, the personal appropriation of the true power of freedom.

Who Presides over America?

 

In his famous 1775 speech before the Virginia Convention assembled at St. George's Episcopal Church in Richmond, Patrick Henry was very accurate in his assessment of the unjust treatment of American colonists by Great Britain. He was also correct in his prophetic prediction that only armed resistance would stop the increasingly aggressive and unjust actions of King George and Parliament. 

The most famous quote from his speech comes from his emotional concluding appeal,

"I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death"

But in this speech, he issued a more foundational and timely declaration of truth with the words...

"A just God presides over the destinies of nation's"

If we, the inheritors of the faithful and courageous actions of men and women like this, believe the same truth, we must repent and experience the same blessings of obedience to God's beneficent rule or we will experience the consequences of rebellion and rejection of the sovereignty of our just God. 

"If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land" (2 Chronicles 7:14).

Wanna make America great (in HIS eyes) again? Join the echo of the voices of more than four hundred years of believers by praying for our return to the just and merciful sovereignty of God. And with His mercy and grace, do your best to live that way yourself.

One Big Contradiction

 

No one can truly live with an atheistic worldview; it would be intolerable. Consider well known and often quoted contemporary atheist Richard Dawkins. Several years ago, he was in Washington, D.C., promoting one of his books. After making a presentation, he took questions from the audience. A young man asked him: 

“If humans are machines, and it is inappropriate to blame or praise them for their actions, then should we be giving you credit for the book you are promoting?” 

Dawkins clearly was taken aback and responded: “I can’t bring myself to do that—I actually do respond in an emotional way and I blame people; I give people credit.” 

The young man responded: “But don’t you see that as an inconsistency in your views?” 

Dawkins’ response was stunning: “I sort of do, yes. But it is an inconsistency that we sort of have to live with—otherwise life would be intolerable.”

On another occasion, back when Bill Clinton was in trouble for various sexual escapades, people were offering evolutionary explanations for his behavior. At the time, Dawkins agreed by explaining that our ancestors (the animal kingdom) were clearly not monogamous but instead harem builders. Our male ancestors, according to Dawkins, monopolized power and wealth and would sexually monopolize females in order to ensure the survival of their genes. So, in Dawkins’ view, President Clinton should get a pass because his behavior is simply a reflection of his genetic past.

However, Dawkins began to get nervous for offering a genetic excuse for immorality, and he obviously did not want to give men an excuse for being philanderers. It was also at a time when he was married. So, he confided to several people that he’d made an “un-Darwinian personal decision to be deliberately monogamous.” 

However, Dawkins believes that we are programmed by our genes through natural selection. So, how in the world does someone make an “un-Darwinian decision?”

How does an atheist make any kind of a moral decision?

For the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. As the Scriptures say,

"He traps the wise

in the snare of their own cleverness" (1 Cor. 3:19).

Let's Do Something Great Today!

"Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted" (Mtt. 23:12).

“I die before my time and my body shall be given back to the earth and devoured by worms. What an abysmal gulf between my deep miseries and the eternal kingdom of Christ. I marvel that whereas the ambitious dreams of myself and of Alexander and of Caesar, should have vanished into thin air, and a Judean peasant, Jesus, should be able to stretch His hands across the centuries and control the destinies of men and nations.”-- Napoleon Bonaparte

Everyone wants to accomplish great things and leave their mark on the world. Following His example, Christ's disciples have a different game plan...

"And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Phl. 2:8-11).

Let's do something great today! As we humble ourselves by surrendering something of our great agenda, money, time, talent, gifts, or any other highly prized part of our super-important lives in order to bless someone more needy than us, the power of God is unleashed to accomplish something far greater in this world than we could ever imagine. 

"Whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mtt. 20:26-28).

If we humble ourselves like Christ did, someone will be blessed and God will be glorified. I can't think of anything greater we might accomplish today than that!

Fulfilled Today!

 

"When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures. The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written:

 

'The Spirit of the LORD is upon me,

for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released,

that the blind will see,

that the oppressed will be set free,

 

and that the time of the LORD's favor has come.'

He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently. Then he began to speak to them. 'The Scripture you've just heard has been fulfilled this very day!'" (Lk 4:16-21).

Such a wonderful proclamation in the weekly gathering of the faithful in Nazareth provoked amazement, but it also produced severe skepticism... 

"Everyone spoke well of him and was amazed by the gracious words that came from his lips. 'How can this be?' they asked. 'Isn't this Joseph's son?'" (Lk 4:22).

In the eyes of the world and in the sight of the community where He grew up, Jesus was simply Joseph's son. He was a former apprentice and now the local carpenter. There is no denying this partial truth. So let's not deny the same truth about ourselves. The very same potential to fulfill the word of the Lord as spoken and recorded by His servant and prophet Isaiah is in us today because... 

"I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me" (Gal 2:20a). 

Aren't we just like Jesus, seen and understood imperfectly by the people we encounter every day? Don't they see us as average Joe's and common Cathy's? They know us as mom, dad, brother, sister, neighbor, friend, co-worker, teacher, student, pastor, etc. What is the secret to turning sermon truth loose in and through us to profoundly transform us and our circle of friends and family? What is the key to unleashing the healing, saving, delivering, sanctifying power of truth implanted in our hearts and minds as we read and meditate on God's word daily in our lives, and through us, into the lives of others? How do we and those we encounter experience the Scripture you've just heard has been fulfilled this very day, every day?

It's all about how we see ourselves. It's about what we believe about ourselves. Paul got it, as the Holy Spirit revealed and he believed the truth about who he was in Christ... 

"And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Gal 2:20b). 

When we start believing the whole truth about who we are in Christ, the transforming power of His word is fulfilled in and through us in God glorifying and honoring ways just as it was in the life of the son of Joseph the carpenter.

The Way to Go!

 

What’s the number one threat to America today? Some say it’s white supremacy. Some say it’s a new form of racism. Some say it’s China. Others say it’s Russia. Some believe it’s from within, others say it’s from without.

I believe the number one threat to America today is experiencing the consequences of turning away from God. How did we get here? Here’s a big and overlooked clue… 

“Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it” (Proverbs 22:6).

It’s obvious that today’s adults, many of whom now hold positions of influence, from the White House to the preschool classroom, are simply walking in the way their parents started them off in.

Shape the child’s heart and mind today, shape the future.. 

To save the future, shape the child’s heart and mind today.

Consider the future-shaping impact of your child hearing God’s Word while they are studying God’s world. Might just be “the way to go!”

The Undeniable Convincing Truth

 

“Christianity is essentially a historical religion. It bases its claims on the historical facts it asserts. If these are demolished it is nothing.” -- Dr. Arthur Lindsley, The C.S. Lewis Institute, “Can the Gospels Be Trusted?” May 25, 2012.

Sir William Mitchell Ramsay is considered one of the greatest archaeologists in history. He performed most of his work across Asia Minor and the Middle East. He was raised an atheist, the son of atheists of great wealth. Receiving his doctorate in archaeology from Oxford, he committed his entire life to archaeology and set out for the Holy Land with the intention of undermining the validity of the Bible. However, Ramsay was forced to completely reverse his beliefs as a result of the overwhelming evidence uncovered in his research. After thirty years of vigorous and comprehensive study and analysis, this is what he had to say about Luke’s ability as a historian...

“Luke is a historian of the first rank; not merely are his statements as facts trustworthy . . . this author should be placed along with the greatest of historians . . . Luke’s history is unsurpassed in respect to its trustworthiness.” -- Josh McDowell, "Evidence that Demands a Verdict", (San Bernardino: Here’s Life Publishers, 1972), 71.

Eventually, after uncovering many hundreds of artifacts confirming the historicity of the New Testament record, Ramsay would shock the archaeological community when he revealed to the world that he had become a Christian. -- D. James Kennedy, "Why I Believe", (Dallas: Word Publishing, 1980), 33.

"As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord proves true; He is a shield for all those who take refuge in Him" (Psalm 18:30). 

The Undeniable Supernatural Truth

"Darwin “made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist.” -- Richard Dawkins, life-long committed atheist, acknowledging that atheism has no intellectual credibility apart from evolution.

Dawkins and other dedicated atheists must deny the fact that the universe has a beginning and therefore a cause. They have no explanation whatsoever about how life originated on this planet, and the collapse of Darwinian evolution would be their demise. It is no wonder they have such fanatical fervor for this theory that clearly is in crisis.

But for those who honestly and fervently study God's creation in search of truth, there is a liberating treasure waiting to be discovered...

“Darwinian theory does rest on truly miraculous assumptions." -- Dr. Rodney Stark, written when he was a self-described agnostic and Professor of Sociology and of Comparative Religion at the University of Washington for 32 years.

"Independent Christian" -- Dr. Rodney Stark, describing his personal faith when he became Professor and co-director of the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University.

"You will know the truth and the truth will set you free" (John 8:32).

Can't You See?

 

"The eye was made for vision; the telescope was made for assisting it. Each uses a sophisticated lens to achieve its function and purpose. Both reflect and manipulate light. ​Both are able to bring an object into proper focus. The muscles surrounding the soft lens of the eye move to bring objects into focus, while a telescope uses dials to move the lens. With would it be reasonable to believe that the telescope was created by a craftsman while the eye was not? Should they not both be considered products of design?" -- (William Paley, Natural Theology, 1802)

To see the evidence of creation we only have to open our eyes!

“The eye to this day gives me a cold shudder" -- (Charles Darwin, The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, London: John Murray, 1988).

God wants us to see and know Him...

"For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse" (Romans 1:19-20).

God's Got This

Despite the glaring lack of evidence, the world continues to try to convince us that we are the result of a chaotic, random, chance series of evolutionary events. Believing what the world says makes us impotent puppets, controlled by the world and people that confront us each day.

“Perhaps generations of students of human evolution, including myself, have been flailing about in the dark... There is no clear-cut and inexorable pathway from ape to man” (Dr. David Pilbeam, distinguished paleontologist and Professor of Anthropology at Harvard University).

Believing what God says about us sets us free from becoming a victim of our circumstances, being a slave to temptation and sin, and manipulation by others. Living in His truth empowers us to conquer any distraction, threat, or trial as He receives glory in our mounting victories.

What God says about us...

"Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it" (Psalm 139:14).

What God says about each day...

"This is the day the LORD has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it" (Psalm 118:24).

Conquer the day, don't believe anything less than the truth that God's got this because God's got this day and everything in it and God's got you!

Why Does Math Work?

"If the universe evolved by blind, material forces acting randomly, why should it fit so neatly into mathematical formulas we invent in our minds? In short, why does math work?" (Pearcey, Total Truth, 316).

"The fact that math works so well in describing the world ‘is something bordering on the mysterious.’ Indeed, ‘there is no rational explanation for it'" (Eugene Wigner, The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences, essay).

"The mathematical precision of the universe reveals the mathematical mind of God” (Albert Einstein).

"The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. They speak without a sound or word their voice is never heard. Yet their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world" (Ps 19:1-4).

"He counts the stars and calls them all by name. How great is our Lord! His power is absolute! His understanding is beyond comprehension!" (Ps 147:4-5).