With All the elections coming up, our focus naturally is on the condition of our country, which leads me to look at America's History. The History of this country is not a bed of roses either.
I am amazed at something I am reading about tonight. I decided to look up the story of the 'Trail of Tears'. Sadly, I had only heard of this, and many times, because it is a reference given by those who want to make sure that everyone knows that our country did not start because Godly people were running our nation.
The reason I am posting this is because in reading about this Historical event, I have learned that there were similarities of that event compared with what we are going through today, during this presidential campaign.
I know very little about Andrew Jackson. I thought I had heard that he was a Christian, but maybe it was someone else. In reading this article, I am seeing that this man was very cruel. He was in charge of the event of the 'Indian-Removal' Act which led to the 'Trail of Tears' where many Indians died as they were forced to move away from their land.
There were many states which joined together to get the Indians to move out of the land they were living on. The reason was due to the fact the the white people wanted the Indian's land, and so they worked together to make laws to get the Indians out. But the Supreme Court objected, at least in the cases in a couple of states. Nevertheless, the Federal Government got its way, and President Jackson disregarded the Supreme Court's decisions.
What kind of a man was President Jackson? Would we have voted him into office if he were running today? According to a Wikipedia article, Jackson killed a man in a duel over his wife, Rachel. He owned hundreds of slaves who worked on the Hermitage Plantation. His decision to invade the Seminole territory in Florida led directly to the First Seminole War, which resulted in Florida being taken away from Spain. He lost in the House of Representatives and blamed the loss on a 'corrupt bargain' between Adams and Henry Clay. Interestingly, he was the one who started the Democratic party.
We tend to think of Early America as a nice nation started by Christian people who loved and feared God, but, it must not have been so, or at least in part.
The reason I am writing this is actually as an encouragement. If this is true about this time in American History, then our country was in trouble even back then. God has been merciful to us as a nation, and we should be thankful for that. We should be taking advantage of the freedom we do have as a people. We should be using this season of our lives for sharing the Gospel and making God's name known in truth.
We have a lot of problems in our country today. This is why we need to be praying for our churches and for our country. May God make us to be the people of God He wants us to be. May our churches be filled with the love of God for each other and for the lost. We can pray for the church in America and for our country to turn back to God.
Throughout History, there is always this cycle where God blesses a people. The people enjoy God's blessings, then, they forget about God. They become full and aren't hungry for God anymore, so they start looking for other things to fulfill them. Eventually, they worship the creature rather than the Creator, then God withdraws His blessings and people suffer. Now we are in a time where many have hardened their hearts against God, and refuse to be saved. God has turned them over to believe the lie. Many in our society are living in a world of lies.
The answer lies in us. We need to be changed by God's power. Then our churches will become vibrant. They will be lights in the darkened communities around them. The standard of right and wrong, good and evil, light and darkness, and truth and error will become evident once again.
"If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, then will I hear from heaven and forgive their sin, and heal their land" applies to Israel, but, there is truth in it for us as well. Whenever we turn to God in repentance and faith, He will turn to us. Our land could be healed if we turn to God. If we pray for ourselves to change, and we pray for our churches, and for our country, God will help us. We need to act on this though, and not just store it in our heads.
Resources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Jackson
http://www.history.com/topics/native-american-history/trail-of-tears
Tuesday, September 20, 2016
Sunday, September 18, 2016
When Did We Drop The Ball?
As you know, unless you have been in hiding for the last 25 years or so, our nation has had a drastic moral change. Do you ever wonder why?
We are all familiar with the saying, 'All that is necessary for evil to triumph, is for good men to do nothing.' We also know that when our nation started, those who founded our country were God-fearing people.
The Pilgrims came over in 1620 to be able to have religious freedom. Many of them died the first year, but no one went back to England. Then the Puritans came over a little later. Along with the good, came the bad also. Others came into the country to find gold. Many of them did not stay though, or they didn't last very long.
How did we get to where we are today, in our nation? This country became great and God blessed us mightily. But today, we see a different standard than the one that our country started with. Today, many do not fear God, nor do they even seem to have any idea of who He is or what He is like. The Bible is treated with skepticism. Christianity is made fun of, and the Gospel is watered down in many pulpits (or completely ignored).
I don't know everything about the History of this country, but I am aware of a couple of things that happened, that probably affected our nation and made it the way it is today.
In the 1850's, for example, the church turned away from doing any kind of Biblical counseling. Up to that point, people looked to the church for help, but, the church didn't want to help people anymore. Thus, the reason for the whole branch of medicine called 'Psychiatry'. Sigmund Freud and others rose to the occasion and provided the answers, supposedly, to man's dilemma in relation to people's mental well being and relational/emotional health.
But something else happened too, around that time. The church also looked down on those who were sick. Those in the church believed that people got sick because of their sin. The church was comprised of mostly middle class people who could afford medical help. To those who had no access to any kind of medical help (the poor and needy?), too bad. They were considered 'sinners' by the church and were shunned. (For more information on this topic, read David Powlison's book, 'The Biblical Counseling Movement' The Biblical Counseling Movement: History and Context
*
In 'Hell's Best Kept Secret', Ray Comfort talks about how the Gospel was watered down at the turn of the 19th Century https://www.livingwaters.com/pdf/HellsBestKeptSecret.pdf. In The Truth Project, we learned about how some of the older colleges were started by Godly men, yet, somewhere down the road, they began to allow evolutionists to lead the schools. Today, these schools are far from representing Biblical Christianity.
In the 1960s, Madalyn Murray O'Hair made up a case and took it to the Supreme Court. She was successful in getting prayer out of schools, and also the idea of 'separation of church and state' became known. Separation of church and state was coined by Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Danbury Baptist Church when they were concerned that the government could come in and interfere with the church. Remember when the Pilgrims came over? They came to America to escape the rulership of a king of their country also ruling the church. Kings should not be ruling the church. Pastors shepherd churches. Kings don't. Or at least they are not supposed to. That is the correct understanding of separation of church and state. But Madalyn Murray O'Hair took her made up case of separation of church and state to the Supreme Court and won. How could she have won? It was because those in the church did not stand up for the truth. They were ignorant of the origins of this country and probably really didn't care. Whatever will be, will be, they must have been thinking.
All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing (Edmund Burke). That is exactly what happened when Madalyn Murray O'Hair did her thing in the 1960s. The church didn't care. No one looked at the bigger picture. On top of that, by that time, much of the church had been watered down. No wonder the course of our nation is going in the direction it is going in.
http://www.beliefnet.com/faiths/secular-philosophies/who-was-madalyn-murray-ohair.aspx
Are we surprised by all this? We shouldn't be. We should be concerned about whether people really do know the Lord or not. What kind of a Gospel message have many professing Christians been told? Were they told to ask Jesus into their hearts? Were they told to raise their hand or go down to the front of the auditorium? Maybe someone encouraged them to 'make a decision for Christ'?
There is a cost to our relationship with God. Salvation is free and is provided through the Cross of Jesus Christ. But have we let go of our sinful ways, or do we just think that God is all-loving and all-forgiving while we go on living for ourselves?
Yes, there is a correlation between the evil path our nation is going on today, and the fact that the church did nothing to respond to evil in the past (except participate in it). But there is hope. God is calling us to unite together, to pray, to grow together as believers in Christ, to love one another, to preach the Gospel and disciple men and women, and to stand up for the truth. Although it will be a lot of work, and will take much faith, I believe we can still turn this nation around and we can be instruments of righteousness in God's hands.
There is hope and our hope is in God. Our relationship with God starts with us, then the church, then society. When the church is healthy, society will reflect that. Society will be affected by the church. When the church is affected by society, something is wrong. When the church is healthy, society will become healthier. Then, God-fearing leaders will be raised up and leading our nation. The destiny of our nation starts here. What will we do in response to this?
*An Amazon Affiliate link. Thanks for your support.
We are all familiar with the saying, 'All that is necessary for evil to triumph, is for good men to do nothing.' We also know that when our nation started, those who founded our country were God-fearing people.
The Pilgrims came over in 1620 to be able to have religious freedom. Many of them died the first year, but no one went back to England. Then the Puritans came over a little later. Along with the good, came the bad also. Others came into the country to find gold. Many of them did not stay though, or they didn't last very long.
How did we get to where we are today, in our nation? This country became great and God blessed us mightily. But today, we see a different standard than the one that our country started with. Today, many do not fear God, nor do they even seem to have any idea of who He is or what He is like. The Bible is treated with skepticism. Christianity is made fun of, and the Gospel is watered down in many pulpits (or completely ignored).
I don't know everything about the History of this country, but I am aware of a couple of things that happened, that probably affected our nation and made it the way it is today.
In the 1850's, for example, the church turned away from doing any kind of Biblical counseling. Up to that point, people looked to the church for help, but, the church didn't want to help people anymore. Thus, the reason for the whole branch of medicine called 'Psychiatry'. Sigmund Freud and others rose to the occasion and provided the answers, supposedly, to man's dilemma in relation to people's mental well being and relational/emotional health.
But something else happened too, around that time. The church also looked down on those who were sick. Those in the church believed that people got sick because of their sin. The church was comprised of mostly middle class people who could afford medical help. To those who had no access to any kind of medical help (the poor and needy?), too bad. They were considered 'sinners' by the church and were shunned. (For more information on this topic, read David Powlison's book, 'The Biblical Counseling Movement' The Biblical Counseling Movement: History and Context
*In 'Hell's Best Kept Secret', Ray Comfort talks about how the Gospel was watered down at the turn of the 19th Century https://www.livingwaters.com/pdf/HellsBestKeptSecret.pdf. In The Truth Project, we learned about how some of the older colleges were started by Godly men, yet, somewhere down the road, they began to allow evolutionists to lead the schools. Today, these schools are far from representing Biblical Christianity.
In the 1960s, Madalyn Murray O'Hair made up a case and took it to the Supreme Court. She was successful in getting prayer out of schools, and also the idea of 'separation of church and state' became known. Separation of church and state was coined by Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Danbury Baptist Church when they were concerned that the government could come in and interfere with the church. Remember when the Pilgrims came over? They came to America to escape the rulership of a king of their country also ruling the church. Kings should not be ruling the church. Pastors shepherd churches. Kings don't. Or at least they are not supposed to. That is the correct understanding of separation of church and state. But Madalyn Murray O'Hair took her made up case of separation of church and state to the Supreme Court and won. How could she have won? It was because those in the church did not stand up for the truth. They were ignorant of the origins of this country and probably really didn't care. Whatever will be, will be, they must have been thinking.
All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing (Edmund Burke). That is exactly what happened when Madalyn Murray O'Hair did her thing in the 1960s. The church didn't care. No one looked at the bigger picture. On top of that, by that time, much of the church had been watered down. No wonder the course of our nation is going in the direction it is going in.
http://www.beliefnet.com/faiths/secular-philosophies/who-was-madalyn-murray-ohair.aspx
Are we surprised by all this? We shouldn't be. We should be concerned about whether people really do know the Lord or not. What kind of a Gospel message have many professing Christians been told? Were they told to ask Jesus into their hearts? Were they told to raise their hand or go down to the front of the auditorium? Maybe someone encouraged them to 'make a decision for Christ'?
There is a cost to our relationship with God. Salvation is free and is provided through the Cross of Jesus Christ. But have we let go of our sinful ways, or do we just think that God is all-loving and all-forgiving while we go on living for ourselves?
Yes, there is a correlation between the evil path our nation is going on today, and the fact that the church did nothing to respond to evil in the past (except participate in it). But there is hope. God is calling us to unite together, to pray, to grow together as believers in Christ, to love one another, to preach the Gospel and disciple men and women, and to stand up for the truth. Although it will be a lot of work, and will take much faith, I believe we can still turn this nation around and we can be instruments of righteousness in God's hands.
There is hope and our hope is in God. Our relationship with God starts with us, then the church, then society. When the church is healthy, society will reflect that. Society will be affected by the church. When the church is affected by society, something is wrong. When the church is healthy, society will become healthier. Then, God-fearing leaders will be raised up and leading our nation. The destiny of our nation starts here. What will we do in response to this?
*An Amazon Affiliate link. Thanks for your support.
Saturday, September 3, 2016
Man Gives Birth To Baby And Nurses His Baby Too!
OK, I have seen a lot of strange things that have happened recently, but I have to admit, this is probably the strangest of all.
It was a picture of a man breastfeeding a baby! According to the article, which was written by one of 'his' sisters, the man was a 'trans' as he called himself. He was born female, with female organs and all, given a female name, and raised as a little girl. When he was sixteen years old, he came out of the closet and identified himself as a man. (I am using male gender terms loosely here).
The man (really a woman filled with male hormones) always wanted to have a baby. I don't think this man had sexual organ transplants or surgeries, but if you were to look at him, he certainly looks like a man! That, of course, is due to the male hormones he was given. He stopped taking the male hormones in order to get pregnant, which happened twice. The first pregnancy miscarried, the second was full term. And now he is 'chest-feeding' his baby (even though the picture shows a full sized breast with a baby nursing).
The article was long, so I didn't read the entirety of it. You can read it for yourself here: http://time.com/4475634/trans-man-pregnancy-evan/
My point is not to make much of this article though. The reason why we are in this situation in the first place is that those at the top of our nation in leadership have chosen to throw God out of this country. But this is not the ultimate problem. The real issue has to do with the condition of the church. What goes on in our society is a reflection of the condition of the church in America.
In the 1960's, a woman named Madeline Murray O'Hare went to the Supreme Court and demanded that God be taken out of our public schools. She was successful in getting the 10 Commandments taken out of the schools, as well as taking prayer out of the school system. What happened? The church was not prepared for this and honestly, I don't think much action was taken. It was like an 'Oh well' situation. Whatever will be, will be. The undiscerning Christian assumed that there was something in the Constitution that had been overlooked all these years, concerning the separation of church and state, and bought into the lie that anything that has to do with God or religion having to stay out of the public school system. There was no fight. There was no battle. The church conceded to the lies of the devil, and evil won. Christians were not alarmed when the Supreme Court decided to take God out of the public school system. No one cared. This is why, I believe, we are in the boat we are in today, especially with immorality issues.
I was in public school in the 1960s and70s. The standard of right and wrong was still intact. Abortions were not legal and many abstained from having sexual relationships outside of marriage. If they did have those relationships and a girl got pregnant, she didn't parade herself around or get an abortion. Many times, the young woman was sent away to live with other relatives until the baby got older.
Today it is different though. Even though God's laws never change, people forget. The standard is now gone, and if a young woman gets pregnant, she has a tough decision to make. She will probably choose to have an abortion and get rid of the evidence. There are greedy people who prey on these young woman and charge a high fee to kill the baby, while consoling her into thinking that God is pleased with the decision she is making to have the abortion.
But it only gets worse. Today, in the church, we have those who actually believe that when Scripture and culture are in disagreement, Scripture has to bow to culture. We have false teachers like Rob Bell teaching this kind of philosophy. They would believe that culture rules and has the final and only authoritative say on any issue.
Fast-forward 30-40 years from when the Bible and prayer were removed from the schools. We now have a generation of people who have some authority in our country, who do not have the wisdom of our forefathers. The fear of God is gone. We are now a nation where everyone does their own thing, and because of technological advances, men can have babies.
Is there any hope for our nation? I do know the answer to this one! Yes, there is hope, but the hope will only come to pass as people are envisioned to share the Gospel message with others. You see, we cannot change our country from the top down. We cannot elect God-fearing men and women into political office today because they are not there. But, we can pray for the church, pray for one another, pray for our pastors, and pray for ourselves, that God will change us and that we will become salt and light in our communities. We can pray for a healthy church in America. Ultimately, that will affect those who lead at the top of our nation.
Our local churches need those who can teach and pastor well. The bickering in the body of Christ in America has to stop. We will never see God move in our midst if we spend our time picking people apart and chasing after false teachers in order to destroy them. In my opinion, this is what the devil wants us to do so that the church will be rendered ineffective.
We have no idea how great and awesome God is. We have a knowledge of His greatness, but we do not have a living experience with the awesome God. We are far too distracted by the Enemy of our souls. We are focusing on the wrong enemy. That is a trick of the devil that he is playing on us, and we don't seem to be discerning enough to catch on.
Do you realize how powerful prayer is? Praying is a spiritual weapon that we can used to fight against the lies and schemes of the Enemy. He will distract us so much that we will not even have time to pray, or we might not think of prayer as significant. Fasting is important as well. Fasting and praying are part of what we do as soldiers in the battle for the souls of men and women, boys and girls.
There are so many things to be praying for. If we don't pray, our country will continue to go downhill. We will lose our freedoms and our children and grandchildren possibly will not even have a church to be part of (unless they meet in secret).
I know many people look at the situations at hand, and basically conclude that the evil around us is just a sign that Jesus is coming back soon. Maybe it is. But keep in mind that with God a day is like a thousand years and vice-versa. We can come up with ideas like Obama being the Anti-Christ and the beast is around the corner. Jesus will probably come back sometime within the next year or coming months.
Jesus will indeed come back again. No question about that. But what if He doesn't come back for another hundred years? Or maybe a couple of hundred years? Will the excuse of not taking responsibility as a soldier of God be worth all the repercussions of the evil we are seeing today and not responding to, down the road? Will our grandchildren and great grandchildren appreciate our apathy and hopelessness during their lifetime in this country or wherever they live? Could we change the course of this nation if we put on the armor of God and stand up for the truth? Could revival come about again in America if we turn back to God in faith and repentance? Could the church shine so bright in this dark and dying world that those who are in utter darkness can see it and be given hope for deliverance and salvation? I believe it can.
It was a picture of a man breastfeeding a baby! According to the article, which was written by one of 'his' sisters, the man was a 'trans' as he called himself. He was born female, with female organs and all, given a female name, and raised as a little girl. When he was sixteen years old, he came out of the closet and identified himself as a man. (I am using male gender terms loosely here).
The man (really a woman filled with male hormones) always wanted to have a baby. I don't think this man had sexual organ transplants or surgeries, but if you were to look at him, he certainly looks like a man! That, of course, is due to the male hormones he was given. He stopped taking the male hormones in order to get pregnant, which happened twice. The first pregnancy miscarried, the second was full term. And now he is 'chest-feeding' his baby (even though the picture shows a full sized breast with a baby nursing).
The article was long, so I didn't read the entirety of it. You can read it for yourself here: http://time.com/4475634/trans-man-pregnancy-evan/
My point is not to make much of this article though. The reason why we are in this situation in the first place is that those at the top of our nation in leadership have chosen to throw God out of this country. But this is not the ultimate problem. The real issue has to do with the condition of the church. What goes on in our society is a reflection of the condition of the church in America.
In the 1960's, a woman named Madeline Murray O'Hare went to the Supreme Court and demanded that God be taken out of our public schools. She was successful in getting the 10 Commandments taken out of the schools, as well as taking prayer out of the school system. What happened? The church was not prepared for this and honestly, I don't think much action was taken. It was like an 'Oh well' situation. Whatever will be, will be. The undiscerning Christian assumed that there was something in the Constitution that had been overlooked all these years, concerning the separation of church and state, and bought into the lie that anything that has to do with God or religion having to stay out of the public school system. There was no fight. There was no battle. The church conceded to the lies of the devil, and evil won. Christians were not alarmed when the Supreme Court decided to take God out of the public school system. No one cared. This is why, I believe, we are in the boat we are in today, especially with immorality issues.
I was in public school in the 1960s and70s. The standard of right and wrong was still intact. Abortions were not legal and many abstained from having sexual relationships outside of marriage. If they did have those relationships and a girl got pregnant, she didn't parade herself around or get an abortion. Many times, the young woman was sent away to live with other relatives until the baby got older.
Today it is different though. Even though God's laws never change, people forget. The standard is now gone, and if a young woman gets pregnant, she has a tough decision to make. She will probably choose to have an abortion and get rid of the evidence. There are greedy people who prey on these young woman and charge a high fee to kill the baby, while consoling her into thinking that God is pleased with the decision she is making to have the abortion.
But it only gets worse. Today, in the church, we have those who actually believe that when Scripture and culture are in disagreement, Scripture has to bow to culture. We have false teachers like Rob Bell teaching this kind of philosophy. They would believe that culture rules and has the final and only authoritative say on any issue.
Fast-forward 30-40 years from when the Bible and prayer were removed from the schools. We now have a generation of people who have some authority in our country, who do not have the wisdom of our forefathers. The fear of God is gone. We are now a nation where everyone does their own thing, and because of technological advances, men can have babies.
Is there any hope for our nation? I do know the answer to this one! Yes, there is hope, but the hope will only come to pass as people are envisioned to share the Gospel message with others. You see, we cannot change our country from the top down. We cannot elect God-fearing men and women into political office today because they are not there. But, we can pray for the church, pray for one another, pray for our pastors, and pray for ourselves, that God will change us and that we will become salt and light in our communities. We can pray for a healthy church in America. Ultimately, that will affect those who lead at the top of our nation.
Our local churches need those who can teach and pastor well. The bickering in the body of Christ in America has to stop. We will never see God move in our midst if we spend our time picking people apart and chasing after false teachers in order to destroy them. In my opinion, this is what the devil wants us to do so that the church will be rendered ineffective.
We have no idea how great and awesome God is. We have a knowledge of His greatness, but we do not have a living experience with the awesome God. We are far too distracted by the Enemy of our souls. We are focusing on the wrong enemy. That is a trick of the devil that he is playing on us, and we don't seem to be discerning enough to catch on.
Do you realize how powerful prayer is? Praying is a spiritual weapon that we can used to fight against the lies and schemes of the Enemy. He will distract us so much that we will not even have time to pray, or we might not think of prayer as significant. Fasting is important as well. Fasting and praying are part of what we do as soldiers in the battle for the souls of men and women, boys and girls.
There are so many things to be praying for. If we don't pray, our country will continue to go downhill. We will lose our freedoms and our children and grandchildren possibly will not even have a church to be part of (unless they meet in secret).
I know many people look at the situations at hand, and basically conclude that the evil around us is just a sign that Jesus is coming back soon. Maybe it is. But keep in mind that with God a day is like a thousand years and vice-versa. We can come up with ideas like Obama being the Anti-Christ and the beast is around the corner. Jesus will probably come back sometime within the next year or coming months.
Jesus will indeed come back again. No question about that. But what if He doesn't come back for another hundred years? Or maybe a couple of hundred years? Will the excuse of not taking responsibility as a soldier of God be worth all the repercussions of the evil we are seeing today and not responding to, down the road? Will our grandchildren and great grandchildren appreciate our apathy and hopelessness during their lifetime in this country or wherever they live? Could we change the course of this nation if we put on the armor of God and stand up for the truth? Could revival come about again in America if we turn back to God in faith and repentance? Could the church shine so bright in this dark and dying world that those who are in utter darkness can see it and be given hope for deliverance and salvation? I believe it can.
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