MESSAGES

Note: The purpose of posting messages is to make them available to those who may not be able to attend service. Maybe when we get to Heaven we will meet someone who read a message and accepted Christ as Savior!! Cool by me!!

Message – June 28, 2009

THE SEVEN PRINCIPLES OF THE JUDEO—CHRISTIAN ETHIC

Source: The American Patriot’s Bible, NKJV, Dr. Richard G. Lee General Editor, Thomas Nelson, In. Copyright 2009 by Thomas Nelson, Inc Used by permission. All rights reserved.

WHEN OUR NATION’S FOUNDING FATHERS gave us documents such as the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and others, they had to lean upon a common understanding of law, government, social order and morality. That understanding sprang from the common acceptance of what has come to be known as the Judeo—Christian Ethic, which is the system of the moral and social values that originates in the Old and New Testaments of the Word of God.

Whether each of the Founding Fathers was a Christian is not the issue. Their writings, their statements, and their votes evidence the fact that the majority of them embraced these great principles as the basis for a civilized nation.

Principle #1 – The Dignity of Human Life                                                                

“You shall not murder,.” Exodus 20:13                                                                         

“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 22:39

The Scriptures emphatically teach the great importance of the respect and preservation of human life. In the Declaration o f Independence our nation’s Founding Fathers wrote that everyone has “unalienable rights,” and that among these are “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” We Americans not only believe this for our land, but also we send our brave military men and women around the world to defend the rights of those who are threatened.

If people and nations do not grant ultimate respect and protection to both the born and the unborn, all other professed morals and values are meaningless. The dignity of human life is not just a principle of the Bible—is is the first principle of any civilized society.

Principle #2 – The Traditional Monogamous Family                                                

And Adam said: “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” –Genesis 2:23-24

Our society has been based upon the belief that the biblical view of traditional marriage and family is the backbone of a healthy social order. Since the joining together of Adam and Eve, marriage has been recognized as a holy union between one man and one woman, and out of that union comes children—born into a home with a father and a mother to love them, nurture them, and teach them how to become healthy, productive, and responsible citizens.

The plan of God, nature, and commonsense is a man and a woman producing children within the institution of marriage. When that plan is lost, “marriage” and “family” become meaningless, and a nation and its people will follow the road to ruin. World history has proven it over and again. Preserving the traditional family is vital to the future of any great nation.

Principle #3 – A National Work Ethic                                                                          

For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. –2 Thessalonians 3:10

Ingrained deep within the American spirit is the willingness and the desire to give an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay. This independent spirit has no desire to simply exist on handouts from government or to depend on the generosity of others. It is this same independent spirit that has allowed America to create the greatest and strongest economy in the history of the world.

Americans have had their challenges. The Great Depression of the 1930’s knocked us to our knees, but it did not beat us. Together, Americans helped one another and lifted our nation back to its economic might. The powers of the world look at our nation and ask where that that spirit of hones labor came from and where this work ethic originated. It came from the men and women who lived before us. Those generations were raised to believe in this third principle of honest work, which is found throughout the Word of God.

Principle #4 – The Right to a God-Centered Education                                           

And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up on the training and admonition of the Lord. –Ephesians 6:4

We see in Proverbs 1:7 that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.”                                                                                                 

How can one understand the creation without first knowing its Creator?          

The answer is one cannot!

Our Forefathers certainly understood this.                                                

For example, did you know that most of America’s oldest universities such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Dartmouth were founded by Christian preachers or churches? Harvard University, founded in 1636, adopted “Rules and Precepts: which stated: “Let every Student be plainly instructed, and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main end of his life and studies is, know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life.” Harvard’s original seal has upon it these words: “Truth for Christ and the Church.”

The early children’s textbook The New England Primer taught the ABC’s by having children memorize: “A—Adam’s fall, we sinned all. B—heaven to find the Bible mind. Today’s youth are tomorrow’s America.

There is truth in the statement attributed to George Washington: “Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail to the exclusion of religious principle…It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.”

Principle  #5 – The Abrahamic Covenant                                                

Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you will all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” –Genesis 12:1-3                                                                                               Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. –Galatians 3:7

A covenant is a decision involving two individuals or groups stating that they will keep a promise of fulfill an agreement between them. The Book of Genesis records the story of God making a covenant with Abraham. The basis of that covenant was that if Abraham would follow God, obeying His laws and commandments, God would bless Abraham and generations of children that would outnumber the stars in the heavens (Gen 15:5). Abraham believed God, obeyed his Word, and God rewarded him with many descendants, a nation of people now known as Israel.

This principle of the Abrahamic covenant states that if a person or nation obeys God, observing the moral truths found in the Bible, that person or nation will be blessed. If they disobey, they will bring punishment upon themselves. For most of our nation’s history, Americans have accepted the belief that good deeds produce good results and that people who were “God-fearing” in language and in lifestyle would be blessed by Him. That belief has been proven to be true time and again. The writer of Proverbs tells it plainly, “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people” (14:34).

Principle #6 – Common Decency

“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” --Matthew 22:39

Simply put, this is the belief that a decent nation is made up of decent people. That nation, when faced with any trying of difficult situation, will do the decent, right, and honest thing. And for the most part, that has been the record of our national history. For example, Americans have given their lives in wars on foreign soil so that others might experience freedom. Americans have worked to feed the world’s poor, to clothe the naked, and to aid the hurting. Americans have opened their arms to many of the worlds oppressed and given them safe haven. Engraved on a bronze plaque on the base of the Statue of Liberty are these words from the poem “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me; I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” A world –renowned symbol of freedom, this statue stands to remind us all that American has indeed been, and continues to be today, a nation of common decency.

Principle #7 – Our Personal Accountability to God

Hebrews 9:27: And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.

Perhaps the greatest restraint against acts of evil toward others is the knowledge that every person and nation will one day give an account for their actions to Almighty God. Certainly the Bible tells us that we are responsible for our actions and we must be accountable for what we do or don’t do. It also teaches that there is a penalty for doing wring and a blessing when we do that which is right, noble and just.

The great American statesman Daniel Webster was once asked, “What is the most sobering thought that ever entered your mind?” He quickly responded, “Personal accountability to God.” Mr. Webster knew that he would one day stand before God in eternity and give an account for his actions. The same applies to every man, woman, and nation.

Closing:

Do we live our lives in obedience to the ethics taught by the God of Israel…the God who gave us Christ and Christianity?

Do we do our best to honor and protect the dignity of every human life?

Do we promote and nurture the traditional monogamous family?

Do we practice and encourage a work ethic of an honest day’s labor for an honest day’s wage?

Where is our God-Centered education for our children?

If the traditional educational system refuses to acknowledge it, may we God’s church take up the challenge of providing comprehensive Christian instruction.

Do we practice common decency by loving our neighbors as ourselves?

Do we remember that we will give a personal account to our God for everything we have done in our lives?

Aren’t we glad that we can receive God’s mercy and forgiveness if we will humble ourselves, turn from our sinful ways, and accept Jesus Christ as Savior?

5-24-2009: So Much To Remember! -Memorial Day

Source: Jerry Shirley, Pastor - Grace Baptist Church -Decatur, Illinois

Back To Basics: The Three R's of Baptism
by Brett Blair Message

Source: eSermons.com Sermons, Brett Blair, Christian Globe Network, 2003, 0-0000-0000-01

Scripture: Mark 1:1-13 (New International Version)

John the Baptist Prepares the Way

1The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

^2 It is written in Isaiah the prophet: “I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way”—  ^3 “a voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.”^4 And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. ^5 The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. ^6 John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. ^7 And this was his message: “After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. ^8 I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

The Baptism and Temptation of Jesus

^9 At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. ^10 As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. ^11 And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

^12 At once the Spirit sent him out into the desert, ^13 and he was in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.

Introduction:

Baptism is a powerful force in the life of a Christian for two reasons. It is something we share in common. Christians all over the world can say that they were baptized in Christ. You met a Catholic in Ireland. He was baptized. You met a Pentecostal in Nigeria. She was baptized. The second reason Baptism is a powerful force is that baptism takes us back to the basics. Now let me set these two ideas up for you with a couple of stories.

You perhaps at one time or another have seen on TV the old black and white video footage of the civil rights marches in the sixties. Martin Luther King often at the front received his share of stinging high-pressured water hoses. Rev. King once remarked that he and the other marchers had a common strength. He put it this way, as "we went before the fire hoses; we had known water. If we were a Baptist or some other denomination, we had been immersed. If we were Methodist, and some others, we had been sprinkled, but we knew water."

You and I know the water. All of God's children know the water. We share by our faith this common symbol, this initiation, this rite, this power of God over the deep and often raging chaos of life. We know water! All over the world Baptism unites us.

It also brings us back to the basics. Perhaps in our lifetime the most public statement of repentance was that of President Bill Clinton's. The one he made before a Prayer Breakfast on September 10, 1998. He summed up the task perfectly when he said, "I don't think there is a fancy way to say that I have sinned." Then he quoted from a book given him by a Jewish friend in Florida. The book is called "Gates of Repentance."

Clinton read this passage from the book: "Now is the time for turning. The leaves are beginning to turn from green to red to orange. The birds are beginning to turn and are heading once more toward the south. The animals are beginning to turn to storing their food for the winter. For leaves, birds and animals, turning comes instinctively. But for us, turning does not come so easily. It takes an act of will for us to make a turn. It means breaking old habits. It means admitting that we have been wrong, and this is never easy. It means losing face. It means starting all over again. And this is always painful. It means saying I am sorry. It means recognizing that we have the ability to change. These things are terribly hard to do. But unless we turn, we will be trapped forever in yesterday's ways."

Clinton's quote ended with this prayer: "Lord help us to turn, from callousness to sensitivity, from hostility to love, from pettiness to purpose, from envy to contentment, from carelessness to discipline, from fear to faith. Turn us around, O Lord, and bring us back toward you. Revive our lives as at the beginning and turn us toward each other, Lord, for in isolation there is no life."

What ever you might think of Clinton and his sincerity, he understood that he needed to do something very basic before the nation. He needed to repent. It's amazing isn't it? Not even a president can escape the basic truths of life. It's like in elementary school. Our parents and teachers understand the importance of building a strong foundation for a child's future. So, we were taught the basics, the three R's: Reading, writing, and arithmetic. Ever notice that only one of those begins with an R. I always thought the fellow that came up with that one needed to go back to school.

As parents and teachers and leaders today we would do well to remember that life is still composed of basics. That is why, when Mark chose to open his Gospel, he did so with the Baptism of Jesus at the Jordan. Baptism reminds us of the three R's of the soul: Repentance, righteousness, and revelation. So, don't be amazed when a president of the United States repents before the nation for even Christ himself, as we have just read, began his ministry identifying with the basics: repentance, righteousness, and revelation. Christ submitted himself to the basics. You ask me, Pastor, why should I be baptized? My answer is, Christ himself was baptized, so should you. Baptism begins the most basic elements of the Christian walk: Repentance from sin, a life of righteousness, and an understanding that God has reveled himself in Christ.

Let's take a look at our Lord's Baptism and what it tells us about the three spiritual R's:

I. Repentance is the first of the three R's. Repentance is Baptism's prerequisite. What does John say? Repent and be baptized. Repentance first. Baptism second. At the height of the Iranian hostage crises a pastor talked with a woman who told about how she had befriended an Iranian student. In the early stages of the revolution, all access to money in the banks was cut off. The young man offered to do some odd jobs for the woman. His financial condition continued to decline so she invited him to stay in her home. She gave him a room and he ate his meals with the family. The woman's neighbors did not approve of this arrangement. Unless the young man was willing to denounce the revolution the neighbors were not willing to accept him. They kept their distance. Her pastor asked her, "How did you come to befriend someone like that?" She pounded her fist on the desk and said, "Because I am a Christian, darn it. You think it is easy?" This is the call of baptismal repentance. The ritual is meaningless unless it is seen as complete dying to self and a rebirth to a new way of life that is seldom easy.

II. The first of the three R's is repentance. That's the first basic component of baptism. The second is righteousness. Righteousness is baptism's fruit. It is like the story of Father Damien from the 1800's. He was a missionary to Hawaii planting churches on the island of Molokai. Being a kind of Apostle Paul to that part of the world. He planted several churches on the main part of the island, but then he discovered another part that nobody ever went to. It's a small Peninsula that juts out north from the island and is separated from the mainland by an almost sheer cliff 2,000-3,000 feet high. The only way to get to that peninsula is to jump off the cliff or go by boat in the open ocean. That deserted peninsula was where the Hawaiians abandoned all their lepers. If you got leprosy in Hawaii, you were taken to this peninsula and abandoned. And Father Damien felt a call to the people there who had been cast off, outcasts removed from society. And he worked there just as he had done on the rest of the island. He built a church with his own hands and helped them build a society - even helping them build houses for themselves - and he lived among them and sought to humbly serve them in any way he could. One day, after he had been there for about 15 years, he was cooking a meal and boiling some water when he spilled the water and it hit his foot. And he realized that there was no pain when it hit. So he tried again. He purposely poured the boiling water on his foot, and there was no pain. That could only mean one thing. He now had leprosy. The next Sunday in church as he began to lead the people in worship, he didn't give his normal greeting. You see, every Sunday he would start, "My fellow believers." But this Sunday he began, "My fellow lepers." He had in every way become one of them. Even taking upon himself their greatest pain.

III. Repentance. Righteousness. The third R is revelation. The beginning of Jesus' public ministry happens at the water's of the Jordan. But it's not just the beginning of Jesus' public ministry; there is something else at work in the water. This is God's startling and awe filled punctuation. This is God's sudden bolt of lightening upon the world. Twice in Mark's gospel the word "torn," with a dramatic and active sense is used. The first "tearing" occurs as Jesus rises from the waters of baptism and the second is at the end of Mark's Gospel as the temple curtain is rent. The first event presents the in breaking of the kingdom of heaven and the second the tearing away of the religious barrier between God and humanity. It is as if Mark is saying God has to rip open the skies and change the course of human behavior and rip apart the human barrier of sin that separates us. God has to do it in a sudden and violent way or else we are lost.

Let me describe it this way. Phil Jackson, the once Chicago Bulls now LA Lakers coach, tells of an experience when he was a player for the New York Knicks in the early 1970s. His team beat Boston in a hard-fought series; then, played Los Angeles for the championship, easily winning. This was the pinnacle of his sports career to that point, the moment he had been striving for with all his heart since he was a kid. Several days later in NYC, he went to Tavern on the Green to celebrate with family and friends. The place was crowded with celebrities like Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman. Later, Jackson wrote this, "the intense feeling of connection with my teammates that I had experienced in Los Angeles seemed like a distant memory. Instead of being overwhelmed with joy, I felt empty and confused. Was this it? I kept saying to myself. Is this what was supposed to bring me happiness? Clearly the answer lay somewhere else." He later understood what was missing. He writes, "What I was missing was spiritual direction."

Now let me add that I do not condone the spiritual path that Phil Jackson took. He took many beliefs from Hinduism, to Christianity, to New Age thought and blended them all together. He says he has found his path but that to me is nothing but a maze. But his experience points to a very basic need in life. It's one of the three R's, the need for revelation, for something outside of our own experiences to guide us and direct us. We need God to break in and reveal himself to us. To tell us this way you go and this person you follow. That's what happened at Jesus' baptism. Listen to this: Jesus was coming out of the water. He had just been baptized to begin his ministry and all these people are standing around watching and God tares open the heavens, descends on Jesus and announces, "You are my Son, whom I love, with you I am well pleased."

Do you hear that? God is telling you: this way you go and this person you follow. Jesus is my Son and he will show you the way and it starts with Baptism. If you want to know the water, that many sitting here this morning have known, start with the basics of baptism: Repentance from sin, a life of righteousness, and an understanding that God has reveled himself in Christ.

eSermons.com Sermons, Brett Blair, ChristianGlobe Network, 2003, 0-0000-0000-01

11-09-2008 God IS The Lord of Our Blessed Nation                                                                       

Message Source: God continue to bless America, Mark Hensley, Pastor/Minister, Southern Hills Baptist Church, Sioux City, Iowa,

Scripture: Key Verse: Psalm 33:12a: ^12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord                                

Scripture Background: Psalm 33

Psalm 33

^1 Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous;

it is fitting for the upright to praise him.

^2 Praise the Lord with the harp;

make music to him on the ten-stringed lyre.

^3 Sing to him a new song;

play skillfully, and shout for joy.

^4 For the word of the Lord is right and true;

he is faithful in all he does.

^5 The Lord loves righteousness and justice;

the earth is full of his unfailing love.

^6 By the word of the Lord were the heavens made,

their starry host by the breath of his mouth.

^7 He gathers the waters of the sea into jars;

he puts the deep into storehouses.

^8 Let all the earth fear the Lord;

let all the people of the world revere him.

^9 For he spoke, and it came to be;

he commanded, and it stood firm.

^10 The Lord foils the plans of the nations;

he thwarts the purposes of the peoples.

^11 But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever,

the purposes of his heart through all generations.

^12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,

the people he chose for his inheritance.

^13 From heaven the Lord looks down

and sees all mankind;

^14 from his dwelling place he watches

all who live on earth—

^15 he who forms the hearts of all,

who considers everything they do.

^16 No king is saved by the size of his army;

no warrior escapes by his great strength.

^17 A horse is a vain hope for deliverance;

despite all its great strength it cannot save.

^18 But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him,

on those whose hope is in his unfailing love,

^19 to deliver them from death

and keep them alive in famine.

^20 We wait in hope for the Lord;

he is our help and our shield.

^21 In him our hearts rejoice,

for we trust in his holy name.

^22 May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord,

even as we put our hope in you. (NIV)

" Blessed is the nation who’s God is the Lord, the people he chose for his inheritance" Psalms 33:12

Introduction: French writer Alexis de Tocqueville, after visiting America in 1831, said, "I sought for the greatness of the United States in her commodious harbors, her ample rivers, her fertile fields, and boundless forests--and it was not there. I sought for it in her rich mines, her vast world commerce, her public school system, and in her institutions of higher learning--and it was not there. I looked for it in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution--and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great!"

Transition: Have we as a country ceased being good, being great? Thankfully not completely! One thing you must know we are a blessed people! God has shed his grace on us…from the tip of Texas to the top of Alaska…from the Eastern seaboard to the West coast were a blessed people! Why? Are we somehow a special people… a people that have earned, achieved our place in history? I believe that for American in particular, history is "His Story". Furthermore I believe as we near the Fourth of July celebration…. the answer to the "Why’s" of our being blessed is found in the Old Testament book of Psalms 33:12.

While the context is referring to the nation of Israel, God has specially blessed us too as Americans! And we will be reminded today that we as Christian Americans owe a debt we can never repay for those who came before us sought the Blessings of God for this great country. The cry today in every home and every heart should be "God Continue to Bless America "

" Blessed is the nation who’s God is the Lord, the people he chose for his inheritance" Psalm33:12 Notice today that God will continue to Bless America, when He is our very heart, when we desire to continue to be a nation who’s God is the Lord!

I. "Blessed is the Nation who’s God is the Lord"

The Psalmist of course is writing of the favor of God for the people of Israel. If we had time it would be quite apparent that the writer is teaching that: The best laid plans and intentions of the nations and the peoples are frustrated by God, if they are out of keeping with his own plan and intention. The nation who’s God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his own possession will be blessed! Broadman Bible Commentary PG 237 John I. Durham

It’s apparent that a nation and a people can choose not to follow God, to refuse to be led by his mighty hand. You see a blessing wouldn’t be waiting for those who do seek him, if people by choice could by there own free will say a resounding "No" to God!

What I want us to remember today is those who came before who pioneered this land did so more often than not with great faith and a certainty that the hand of God led them! Liberty there’s and ours was the result of so great a faith!

Peter Marshall, before the U.S. Senate said it ever so well in a prayer many years ago. "Lord Jesus, thou who art the way, the truth, and the life; hear us as we pray for the truth that shall make all free. Teach us that liberty is not only to be loved but also to be lived. Liberty is too precious a thing to be buried in books. It costs too much to be hoarded. Help us see that our liberty is not the right to do as we please, but the opportunity to please to do what is right."

I am so thankful for men and woman of courage, who were willing to state that there God was the Lord! People who did the right thing! Why have we been blessed these many years? The secret isn’t really a secret at all, in the sophistication of our current society many assume that it’s because of intellect and ability that’s resulted in America being a "land of plenty". Our hearts know the real answer! " Blessed is the nation who’s God is the Lord"

Fifty-six men signed the Declaration of Independence. Their conviction resulted in untold sufferings for themselves and their families. Of the 56 men, five were captured by the British and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons in the Revolutionary Army. Another had two sons captured. Nine of the fifty-six fought and died from wounds or hardships of the war. Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships sunk by the British navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts and died in poverty.
At the battle of Yorktown, the British General Cornwallis had taken over Thomas Nelson’s home for his headquarters. Nelson quietly ordered General George Washington to open fire on the Nelson home. The home was destroyed and Nelson died bankrupt. John Hart was driven from his wife’s bedside as she was dying. Their thirteen children fled for their lives. His fields and mill were destroyed. For over a year, he lived in forest and caves, returning home only to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks later, he died from exhaustion. Kenneth L. Dodge, Resource, Sept./ Oct., 1992, Page 5.
What comes to mind when you think of Fourth of July? Apple pie, hotdog’s baseball and fireworks? Let’s be honest, yes! We can’t help it those thoughts have a home in our thinking and culture! I challenge you this fourth to take the time to remember, what it means to really be blessed. Freedom came at such a great price for so many!

II. We must desire to continue to be a nation whose God is the Lord.

Many are unaware that the Declaration of Independence did not come into being until a day of fasting and prayer had been observed. Appointed by the Continental Congress, it was kept by all the colonies on May 17, 1776. At that time in our history, God and the Bible were given more reverence and recognition than they are today. When the nation was finally born, our forefathers rang the Liberty Bell with great enthusiasm, and a legend says that it cracked as they zealously proclaimed their freedom. Years later the White Chapel Foundry of London offered to recast the huge carillon, but their proposal was of course refused. Apparently the symbolic value of the damaged bell, which recalls the religious and patriotic fervor of those early days, is something that America still wishes to preserve. This in itself is good; but in view of our nation’s moral decline, the crack may also suggest a break in our basic ideals and a serious defect in our spiritual attitudes. We can remedy the situation and avert the judgment of the Lord only by repentance, prayer, and a return to the faith of our fathers. In this sense, there is no time for delay in "mending the bell."

Let us begin mending the bell by honoring His laws. Let us as God’s children make the Ten Commandments a priority in our lives. We must also honor the name of God. We must stop taking his name in vain. When we take the name of God in vain we trivialize his majesty.
We must begin to honor the Lord’s Day, and respect His house.

And above all we must respect GOD.
If we will do this, then our nation will begin to once again feel the blessings from God. If we turn our eyes upon Jesus we will have less turmoil and unrest within. Our crime rates will decrease, our neighborhoods will be safer, and we will find we have more compassion for one another.

We have no idea how much God is willing to bless us if we will turn our nation back to God. If we will make God our Lord.

"This nation was built by the power of hope. No painter ever set brush to canvas, no writer ever set pen to paper, no builder ever set brick on brick, no enterpriser ever built an enterprise without having hope that he or she could do what they were dreaming of doing. We have not begun to fathom the power of hope in creating better lives for ourselves and our children." Lewis Smedes, "Keep Hope Alive," Preaching Today, Tape No. 139.

We can strengthen that hope with a strong foundation of Faith, and see great things begin to happen. Don’t let the hope die out, lets turn our memories of history into present day realities. Let us look into the past and be faithful to the memories of those who have passed before us, but at the same time, learn from the lessons they are teaching us.

Patrick Henry that great patriot who said "Give me liberty or give me death" also said this: It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians, not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ! Patrick Henry

If America is to continue to be blessed that’s a truth we must never forget!

" Blessed is the nation who’s God is the Lord, the people he chose for his inheritance" Psalm 33:12

9-14-2008 Seven Reasons Why Truth Matters

Source: an article by Charles Colson & Harold Fickett as it appeared in sermoncentral.com August 18, 2008 –

Exodus 20: 16 - ^16 “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.”

John 8:31- 36:  ^31To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. ^32Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 

^33 They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”

^34 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. ^35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. ^36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.      ‘

Article Highlights

Weakening our commitment to the truth allows us to undermine the Gospel without arousing even a protest.

Commitment: the trait of sincere and steadfast fixity of purpose; "a man of energy and commitment"

The Church simply can’t be the Church without being on the side of truth.

Truth: 1. the true or actual state of a matter: He tried to find out the truth. 2. conformity with fact or reality; verity: the truth of a statement. 3. a verified or indisputable fact, proposition, principle, or the like: mathematical truths.  5. actuality or actual existence. 7. honesty; integrity; truthfulness.  

Without a basis for morality, no moral consensus can be reached, which is why we are in an ongoing and increasingly strident culture war.

1.    Truth Matters Because the Heart of What We Believe is at Stake

The path of postmodern Christianity bears some chilling resem­blances not only to early Church heresies (such as Montanism), but to the theological liberalism of the last century, which led some Prot­estants to abandon the basic propositions of Christian doctrine. A late defender of theological liberalism, Deane William Ferm, writes,

What are the motifs of liberal Protestantism? Perhaps the most important one is the priority of firsthand personal experience as the authority for one’s religious beliefs. All doctrines must be extracted from “the inward experience of Christian people.”

In the last line, Ferm is quoting famed German philosopher Friedrich Schleiermacher, nineteenth-century progenitor of twentieth-century Protestant liberalism.1 Doesn’t that sound hauntingly like the argu­ments we hear today?

The great conservative leader, Princeton professor J. Gresham Machen, resisted this trend heroically early in the last century, argu­ing that when doctrine and truth are abandoned, you don’t get liberal Christianity, you get another religion altogether, which he called liberalism. We saw how this led to the decline of mainline churches in the last century, and conservative churches are at risk of the same thing today.

Truth comes from God’s Holy word. It is our surest resource for basic/simple, rock-solid truth. Successful living depends on our adhering to this truth as it is found in the Bible. The less we study God’s word the more likely we are to stray from God’s simple truth or be deceived by our enemy. The more complicated we make God’s truth and simple gospel the farther we are vearing away from God’s absolute truth. God’s precepts are simple, to the point and easy to understand.

The fancier we get with our theologies and philosophies, the further we drift from God’s simple Gospel…truth. God loves us, forgives us, restores us, heals us, and meets us in Heaven. The KISS system is still the best truth system for us. Keep It Simple Sheep.

2.    Without Truth, the Gospel is Perverted

Weakening our commitment to the truth allows us to undermine the Gospel without arousing even a protest. When Katherine Jefferts Schori became presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church of the U.S., Time asked her for her prayer for the Church. She answered, “That we remember the centrality of our mission is to love each other. That means caring for our neighbor. That does not mean bickering about fine points of doctrine.”2 But as we have seen, right doctrine leads to the love of neighbor Bishop Schori would like to see practiced. And without first loving God, the first commandment she ignored, we can’t love our neighbor with the consistency and stamina this world demands. (Bishop Schori’s answer reveals that the current fracturing of the Episcopal Church is not primarily over gays being ordained, but over the authority of Scripture.)…God’s authority…which is always absolute and always the truth.

The mission of the Church is perverted as well. When truth is abandoned, therapy takes its place. Therapy as in learning to live with a handicap. We learn how to cope with our problems instead of curing them. That is instead of allowing God to save us from our sins, deliver us from our favorite temptations, and heal us from our diseases and leading us safely to Heaven. We learn to accept our sins and live with them instead allowing God to remove us from them. The Bible (God’s Truth) says that old things (sins) are supposed to pass away. All things are to become new. God wants us to be born again…died out to sin and alive to God, living our lives per Jesus’ example as recorded in the Holy Scriptures…the truth.

3.    Rejection of Truth Results in Biblical Illiteracy

Abandonment of the truth shows up in widespread biblical illiteracy. Pollster George Barna has discovered that most churchgoing adults reject the accuracy of the Bible, the existence of Satan, and the sinlessness of Jesus. Many see no need to evangelize and believe that good works are one of the keys to persuading God to forgive their sins. It would be humorous if it were not so tragic that the most widely known Bible verse among adult and teen believers is “God helps those who help themselves,” which is not in the Bible—it’s actually a quote from Ben Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanac (1757). When given thir­teen basic teachings from the Bible, only one percent of adult believers agreed with or accepted all thirteen. Chuck Colson encountered the same thing in his personal survey. This is why Barna describes this as “an age of spiritual anarchy . . . [while the] Church is rotting from the inside out, crippled by abiblical theology.”3

The only correct theology is the theology as clearly expressed and explained in God’s Word.

4.    Rejection of Truth Leads to Ethical Confusion

Denial of the truth of God’s revelation undermines any attempt to deal with contemporary ethical questions, particularly in regard to sexuality, which plays a major role in all of our lives. It’s often the place where we want to make up our own rules.

At a prayer breakfast in the Midwest some years ago, I met a doctor active in a good Bible study and a strong evangelical church. The subject of homosexuality came up, and he told me that as a doctor he believed homosexuals have a natural instinct and desire that needs to be satisfied, so how can we as Christians deny them the same pleasures heterosexuals have?

It’s an argument I’ve heard many times—one that evokes some sympathy; no one wants to denounce anyone’s desire for sexual pleasure. Christians who do are viewed as being bigoted. But I pointed out to my new friend that homosexuality is contrary to God’s design, the natural order, and the truth about God’s creation, as he could read in Romans 1.

It is important to understand the context in which Paul wrote in order to grasp how we understand moral truth. In the first part of Romans 1 he tells us that God’s eternal power and divine nature are plainly seen from His creation. So “men are without an excuse”; though they knew God “their thinking became futile and their fool­ish hearts were darkened” (Romans 1:20-21). Paul then uses homosexuality as a prime example of the consequences of denying the obvious: “Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity . . . their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones . . . [and] the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another” (Romans 1:24-27).

Now why did Paul single out homosexual behavior? Because he thought it was the most obvious example of defying the self-evident created order. On Larry King one night, Rick Warren answered the question plainly: Stand a naked man and a naked woman together, he told Larry, and you can see how God has designed us. (King was, for once, speechless.)

There is a self-evident connection between God’s created physical order and the corresponding moral order that enables our behavior to “fit” the physical. I have found whenever I’ve explained this it takes much of the sting out of what appears to be God’s “puritanical” desire that people have no fun and explains why Paul used this one particular sin (which is no more grievous than heterosexual sin) as the most obvious example of defying the creation.

It also answers the charge, which many younger people raise, that Christians are homophobic to the extent we all must repent. But the charge is wrong, I believe. Chuck Colson has worked lovingly with hundreds of prisoners stricken with AIDS and have witnessed many Christians doing the same. Catholic Charities, after all, runs most of the AIDS facilities in America.

5.    The Rejection of Truth Undermines Cultural Development

From the time of the Church’s emergence during the Roman Empire, the Christian faith, and the reason that relied on it, built the greatest society in human history. During the eighteenth-century Enlightenment, however, nonbelieving philosophers and scientists argued that since God wasn’t necessary for explaining creation, He wasn’t necessary to explain the moral order either. Reason alone would govern.

The problem was that reason without revelation lacked authority, which leads to chaos and tyranny.

The history of the twentieth century, particularly World War I, World War II, and the Holocaust, were horrifying testaments to this. German philosophy had culminated in the fascism that nearly destroyed civilization.4 Another godless philosophical newcomer, communism, was already ravaging the world and would continue to do so.

But in the aftermath of World War II, Western intellectuals did not renounce the formative influences of fascism and communism and return to the authority of faith. Instead, they despaired of any true understanding of the world—of both faith and reason, ushering in the postmodern era.

We see the effect of this everywhere in the West. Without a basis for morality, no moral consensus can be reached, which is why we are in an ongoing and increasingly strident culture war. Human rights and the law, once seen as God-given, now lack their former authority. Instead of being based on “Nature and Nature’s God,” as our founders wrote—“rights” are determined subjectively. If Dawkins is right that there is no good or evil, we shouldn’t have tried the Nazi war criminals at Nuremburg. And the culturally powerful can do what they like with us, from euthanasia and cloning to engineering babies. Ethics become utilitarian—that is, we do what produces the maximum happiness rather than what is objectively right. This is why liberal churchmen were in the vanguard of the eugenics movement before World War II, which led to Hitler’s gruesome medical experiments.5

These circumstances jeopardize the very existence of Western democracies. If people are not guided by conscience and self-restraint, government inevitably becomes increasingly coercive to stave off chaos. That’s why our laws are proliferating as never before. This is even more obvious in Western Europe, where laws have been elaborated to an almost unimaginable extent to protect people’s rights. Yet overwrought legalism cannot be sustained. It leads to repression and then tyranny. It all comes back to the lack of a basis of authority in the truth.

6.    Rejecting Truth Leads to False Gods

When the God of the Bible is rejected, people choose a new god. The postmodern age has anointed secular tolerance as its god. Tolerance once meant listening respectfully to all points of view, freely discussed in our common search for the truth. But the creed for the new god of tolerance is that knowing truth is impossible. So everyone is free to think and act as he likes, with one exception: those who have the audacity to believe that they know the truth, particularly if they think God has revealed it to them, are not tolerated. The result is that those who crowned the new god of tolerance have become the absolute arbiters of culture. The new god of tolerance becomes, in the guise of liberalism, an absolute tyrant.

Public endorsements of secular tolerance have now become a new public ritual. I watched a debate in the 2006 elections in which a supposedly conservative candidate for governor said he was pro-life. But he quickly assured the questioner that he would not seek any changes in the law. He would not want to “impose his personal views on others,” he explained. That’s the logical equivalent of saying, “I believe it is wrong to molest a child, but I’m not going to try to prevent anyone from doing so.” Why would you want to be governor if you could not seek, through the proper legal means, to prevent moral injustice? In a commentary not only on the politician but on the people, he was handily elected, having succeeded in offending no one at the expense of abandoning his professed convictions.

The only thing the god of tolerance hates more than Christians making truth-claims is Christians proving them. Beginning with a facility in Houston, Prison Fellowship now runs residential programs, “spiritual boot camps,” within prisons in locations scattered across the country. This is called the InnerChange Freedom Initiative—or IFI. We have, since the beginning, contended that these demonstrate the truth of the Gospel in transforming lives. In 2003, the first peer-reviewed academic studies validated our claims. University of Pennsylvania researchers reported that IFI graduates had an 8 percent re-incarceration rate versus 20 percent in a comparable control group (and 67 percent nationally). Prison officials were astounded.

It was the first empirical evidence that this faith-based approach to corrections works—in other words, that the Gospel is true. And that’s when Barry Lynn of the Americans United for Separation of Church and State decided to sue.6 To prove our truth-claims proved an outrage that tolerance could not abide.

7.    If Christianity is Not the Truth, it is

Why does truth matter so much? Because the Church simply can’t be the Church without being on the side of truth. Jesus came as the champion of the truth and of those on the side of the truth. Without understanding this, the Church cannot even present the Gospel. Without truth, it resorts to therapy and has patients, not disciples.

Much of Christianity’s retreat from the truth or tempering of our witness in the West has been motivated by good intentions—not to offend or be judgmental, the desire to feel more personally connected to God and to make Christianity more relevant and culturally acceptable.

The history of Christianity, including the faith’s surge in the Third World today, shows the reverse to be the case. While we always want to be sensitive to other cultures, we cannot be co-opted by them. The early Christians who treated plague victims certainly weren’t embracing the pagan culture. Nor were they trying to make Christianity more relevant and win over the hearts of an empire; they were simply carrying out the truth of their faith—that every person is made in the image of God and therefore possesses dignity.

The task of this generation—as it will be in every generation—is to understand Christianity as a complete view of the world and humankind’s place in it, that is, as the truth. If Christianity is not the truth, it is nothing, and our faith mere sentimentality.

Closing: So I say believing that God is, is the beginning and anchor of truth. Christianity…the practice of believing in Jesus of Nazareth as Christ…Savior of all who believe in Him …in fact it is the end of truth.

Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. ^32Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

It is no accident that the one nation on Earth with the most freedom for its civilians is the nation that was founded as “One Nation Under God.”…meaning the God of the Bible…the God of Israel. The God who sent His son Jesus Christ to earth to save us and show us by example how to live a life of truth.

It is no coincidence that as God and His truth are systematically removed from American culture that individual liberties and freedoms are fast disappearing.

Do you want truth? Do you want freedom? Do you want true success and satisfaction in life?

Then accept that all truth is rooted in God, revealed in His Holy Scriptures and fulfilled through Jesus Christ God’s son and our savior.

Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. ^32Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” ^36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Because you know the truth and have applied it to your life.