God knows our hearts. He knows not only what we ask, but why we ask. And when we ask with impure motives, seeking God only as a means to achieving our selfish desires, He gently corrects us. It is God’s desire that our hearts would turn to Him, for His sake, and be satisfied with Him. And in turn, He helps us to overcome our selfish desires as we set our minds on heavenly things.
The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is once again forcing postal workers to work on Sunday. In fact, the USPS refused to give our postal worker client an accommodation to continue going to church on Sunday.
We’ve been fighting – and WINNING – these types of cases for decades. And we’re currently representing numerous clients defending their right to go to church. We just won for one of our USPS clients and are sending a demand letter for another one TODAY. We helped win at the U.S. Supreme Court last year to protect your right to go to church on Sunday, and we’ll go back to the Supreme Court if necessary.
Church is essential, and our constitutional rights to religious liberty MUST BE PROTECTED. If they can block you from going to church, what’s next?
This is a critical moment to stop these attacks on faith and defend religious liberty in court.
As we send our demand letter TODAY to protect your right to go to church and religious liberty, take action with us.
Lord, too often my own desires and priorities get in the way of truly seeking You. Please transform my heart and renew my mind so that I may be more like You. Help me to put away selfish ambitions and lustful pursuits, and instead desire more of what is true, good, and right. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
June 12, 2024 View in browser The Epoch Times A wave of major Supreme Court decisions is expected in the next several weeks as the 2023-2024 term comes to an end this month. The Court’s calendar has marked two days for potential opinion releases but will likely add more to the calendar. So far this term, the justices have released 32 opinions, or a little more than half of the 61 oral arguments they heard this term.
The U.S. Supreme Court in Washington on May 29, 2024.
Among the cases pending are ones related to presidential power, the events of Jan. 6, 2021, abortion, gun rights, social media, and administrative authority. “This term stands to be a critical one in articulating the proper role of the separation of powers and the limits on the federal government,” Judicial Crisis Network President Carrie Severino told The Epoch Times. Former President Donald Trump’s appeal in his Washington, Jan.6-related case is expected to set game-changing precedent for presidential immunity while potentially bearing on the success of DOJ’s case against him. Experts have speculated to The Epoch Times that the justices will refine the legal scope of presidential immunity while remanding the case for further consideration in D.C. District Court. Another case has challenged the Justice Department’s attempt to use a financial reform law to charge many Jan. 6 defendants. The Court’s ruling could bear on prior convictions as well as Trump’s trial in Washington. Separation of Powers refers to the idea that each branch of the federal government has its own territory of authority. While the Constitution sets up checks and balances, various cases are questioning how the extent to which different branches affect each other. Four major cases related to administrative power have gone before the Court this term. Two of them—Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and Relentless Inc. v. Department of Commerce—could lead the Supreme Court to overturn a decades-old precedent known as Chevron deference. Chevron deference generally refers to the idea that courts should defer to an agency’s interpretation of their authority under laws passed by Congress. The decision has been cited in thousands of cases and its undoing is expected to change the landscape of litigation for challenges to regulation. Administrative law courts, or in-house tribunals for administrative agencies, may suffer a significant setback depending on how the Court rules in S.E.C. v. Jarkesy. In May, the justices indicated they wouldn’t default to an anti-regulatory stance in these types of cases. One of the most conservative justices, Justice Clarence Thomas, penned the majority opinion upholding the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s controversial funding mechanism. The Biden administration is also asking the Court to lift what they say is an overbroad injunction on their ability to communicate with social media companies. Missouri and others have sued the administration, alleging that it coerced social media companies to do its bidding in content moderation related to COVID-19. Other social media cases—Moody v. NetChoice LLC and NetChoice LLC v. Paxton—could help set parameters for how far state legislatures can go in regulating social media platforms’ content moderation. Gun rights and abortion are back at the Court this term with controversial cases about the abortion pill, bumpstocks, firearm ownership for domestic abusers, and how federal law may or may not force physicians to perform abortions. —Sam Dorman NORTH DAKOTA REDISTRICTING DISPUTE The Supreme Court has invited the Biden administration to submit a brief with its views in an ongoing redistricting dispute in North Dakota. The state appealed a lower court decision upholding its creation of two new, minority-majority subdistricts. Although the state agreed with the outcome, it said the lower court’s reasoning was incorrect. The Voting Rights Act (VRA), which was enacted in 1965 and prohibits racial discrimination in voting, is at the core of the dispute. The state of North Dakota sees the lower court decision as flawed because it assumes that attempting to comply with the federal VRA justifies racial discrimination in validating the new subdistricts. Two Republican-affiliated voters tried to challenge the redistricting plan, which was approved by the state legislature, but U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota dismissed the voters’ lawsuit at the behest of the state and the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation. Doug Burgum, the state’s Republican governor and former 2024 presidential candidate, filed a reply brief in May stating that “as a matter of first principles,” the state is unable to defend the basis of the summary judgment. Quoting Justice Clarence Thomas, the brief stated that if complying with a federal statute requires the state to engage in racial discrimination, “the proper conclusion is not that the statute excuses the state’s discrimination, but that the statute is invalid.” Burgum asked the Supreme Court to review the basis of the lower court decision. More than a dozen other Republican-dominated states filed a brief supporting the voters in April, telling the Supreme Court “the stakes are high” and that states need to know what the VRA means. The case came after years of court decisions surrounding the VRA, including in Alexander v. South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP. In that case, the justices decided in May to uphold a redistricting plan in South Carolina. Election lawyer J. Christian Adams told The Epoch Times: “You are not allowed to create them solely on the basis of race. Even if the Voting Rights Act requires that you’re not allowed to just say, ‘Okay, let’s make a black district.’ It’s more complicated than that.” He described this area of law as “the most complicated … in the entire country.” —Matthew Vadum and Sam Dorman BOOKMARKS Hunter Biden has been convicted of all three charges in his Delaware gun trial. Mr. Biden faces up to 25 years for having lied about his drug addiction in order to purchase a gun in 2018. Microsoft has been forced to tighten cybersecurity measures for its Recall program, which takes constant screenshots of user’s computers. The program will now be disabled by default, and will require facial recognition to install. An internal investigation at the DOJ revealed that it had no communications with the District Attorney of Manhattan on President Donald Trump’s N.Y. case. The DOJ had been accused by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and others of colluding with the Manhattan DA. Economists at the World Bank say the United States is pushing global economic growth. Global growth rates are expected to reach 2.6 percent, instead of the predicted 2.4 percent. A former AI researcher has warned that China could weaponize the latest developments in the technology. He expects AI to reach human levels of processing power by 2027.
LONG HAIR Traditionally, long hair was always a symbol of masculinity. All of history’s great warriors had long hair, from the Greeks (who wrote odes to their heroes’ hair) to the Nordic, from the American Indians (famous for their long shiny hair) to the Japanese. And the longer and beautiful the hair was, the more manly the warrior was considered. Vikings flaunted their braids and samurai wore their long hair as a symbol of their honor (they cut their braid when they lose honor). When a warrior was captured, his mane was cut to humiliate him, to take away his beauty. That custom resumed in what is today military service. There when new soldiers begin their training the first thing they do is cut their hair to undermine their self-esteem, make them submissive and make them see who’s boss. The Romans were the ones who “invented” short hair so to speak, between the 1st and 5th centuries AD.. In battles they believed this gave them defensive advantages, since their opponents couldn’t grab them by the hair. This also helped them to recognize each other in the battlefield. Short hair on men is a relatively new “invention” that has nothing to do with aesthetics. But today we often see men being humiliated, sometimes called “gay” for wearing long hair, not knowing that short hair is actually the “anti-masculine” and is a repressive social imposition, while long hair symbolizes freedom
🇮🇱🙏⛪🇮🇱🙏⛪🙏🇮🇱🙏⛪🇮🇱🙏 The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens. Proverbs 3:19
How can we begin to measure the mind of God? Even as scientists learn, piece by piece, how the universe and the earth work, we realize the complexity and order of creation. We realize how little we know, despite how much we’ve learned. And none of it is an accident. Each process, each atom, each scientific principle, has been laid down by our Creator to display His glory and power.
God, my words cannot describe how awesome You are. As I look into the heavens, I marvel at Your vast power. And as I meditate on the makeup of the earth, and all of the plants, animals, chemicals, and processes that form our complex ecosystem, I appreciate Your infinite wisdom even more. You are wise, powerful, and magnificent indeed! In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Jesus gave us the most important commandments that we are to live out in our lives as Christians. The first one: We are to love God with all of our hearts, souls, and minds. The second one being that we are to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. It should be no surprise that the greatest commandments of all have to do with love. Everything that is to do with God is all about love. God created us out of love and He redeemed us out of love. We are where we are, as His children, because of the love of God.
You cannot be a child of God if you do not have the love of God in your heart. But the love of God is not just about saying that you have it. It has to be evident in your thoughts, beliefs, and actions. You may not have it all figured out but you will learn as you go. This is why we have the Bible – it helps us grow in the knowledge of God and what His love really means. We express our love for God through communicating with Him regularly, studying His word, and obeying His commands.
We also express our love for God through loving people. There is no way you can claim to love God if you harbor resentment and hatred against people. It can be hard to let go of the hurtful things that people have done to us, but forgiveness sets us free. Forgiveness is a godly action because we are emulating what God did for us. God is more than capable of healing our brokenness and helping us find the strength to forgive those who have wronged us.
Part of being a Christian is humbling ourselves and realizing that without God, our lives truly mean nothing. We are to acknowledge that we have made a conscious choice to turn away from the bad deeds and sinful habits, and we have turned to the holy life God has presented before us. God had to forgive us of our sins first in order for us to be qualified to live this life. We are to never forget of this great forgiveness that God promised the children of Israel all those years ago. Repent from all evil ways, and choose to be transformed by the love of God and His Word.
Father, I humbly present myself as one who has chosen to turn away from their sinful ways. It is a choice I made when I chose to follow you and Lord, it is a choice I intend to abide in. Father, help me to walk in a way that is worthy of this calling. Thank you for your patience, O Lord, and for never going back on your promises. Were it not for your forgiveness, O Father, I don’t know where I would be. I humble myself before you, O Lord, and pray that I abide in you and nothing else. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.
Gracious God our Father, we come to You in Jesus name we thank You for sending Jesus to die for sinners, including myself among them.
🙏 God’s Promise 🙏
Isaiah 9:6 – in God’s promise to us was to send His Son: “His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Promise fulfilled!
Generative AI is experimental. Learn more The Bible has many passages that mention God as a defender, including: Deuteronomy 32:4 “The LORD is your mighty defender, perfect and just in all his ways; Your God is faithful and true; he does what is right and fair”. Psalm 62:6-8 “He only is my rock and my salvation: He is my defence; I shall not be moved. In God is my salvation and my glory: The rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God”. Psalm 62:5-7 “I depend on God alone; I put my hope in him. He alone protects and saves me; he is my defender, and I shall never be defeated. My salvation and honor depend on God; he is my strong protector; he is my shelter”. Exodus 15:2-3 “The LORD is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him. The LORD is a warrior; the LORD is his name”. Zechariah 1:18-2:13 “He will defend His chosen people and punish the wicked in His time!” . Psalm 18:1-6 “I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies”.
Hear us today as we praise you – the LORD God Almighty – above Whom nothing and no one is greater – our all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-loving God.
Praise God that He is the same yesterday and today and forever (Hebrews 13:8), and that He is your solid Rock, your Fortress, your Rescuer, your Shield, your …
God, our loving Heavenly Father, wants us to find happiness and joy. He created a plan for us to grow, live by faith, and return to live with Him someday. His plan gives meaning and context to our life here on earth and answers the big questions: “Where did I come from?” “Why am I here?” and “What happens after I die?”
What does the Bible say about loyalty to your country? Righteousness exalts a nation.
Here are our sons and daughters, submit them to any test of comparison you will; regard for truth, veneration for age, reverence for God, love of man, loyalty to country, respect for law, refinement of manners, and lastly, … purity of mind and chastity of conduct.
What does God say in the Bible about us? You are children of God, heirs of God (1 John 3:2; Romans 8:16–17). You are no longer orphans. You belong to me (John 14:18; 1 Corinthians 6:19). And I love you as a perfect Father (1 John 3:1; Luke 15:20–24).Sep 24, 2015
Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he chose for his inheritance.” Acts 17:26 “From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.”
Who was the most loyal person in the Bible? Similar to the Hebrew Bible narrative, Islamic tradition mentions that Satan heard the angels of God speak of Job as being the most faithful man of his generation.
What did the Bible say about a good woman? She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come. She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue. She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. “Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.”
True History or Consummate Fraud?
Hear the confident declaration of American statesman Daniel Webster (1782-1852):
The Gospel is either history, or it is a consummate fraud; it is a reality or an imposition. Christ was what He professed to be was an imposter. There is no other alternative. His spotless life in His earnest enforcement of the truth – His suffering in its defense, forbade us to suppose that He was suffering an illusion of a heated brain. Every act of His pure and holy life shows that He was the author of truth, the advocate of truth, the earnest defender of truth, and the uncompromising sufferer for truth. Now, considering the purity of His doctrines, the simplicity of His life, and the sublimity of His death, is it possible that He would have died for an illusion? In all His preaching the Savior made no popular appeals. His discourses were always directed to the individual. Christ and His apostles sought to impress upon every man the conversation that he must stand or fall alone – he must live for himself, and die for himself, and give up his account to the omniscient God as though he were the only dependent in the universe. The Gospel leaves the individual sinner alone with himself and God, Himself!
For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 4:6
Without God, our brokenness leaves us searching in the dark, unable to see His glory. But Jesus changed all of that, bringing the light of God not only to our world through His life, but into each of our hearts through our redemption. All of us who know Jesus not only have been given the blessing of seeing God’s glory, but He also continues to shine through us so that His light may expel darkness wherever we go.
Father God, thank You for sending Jesus, and for the light that You bring into my life through him, and for opening my eyes to see Your glory revealed in him. Please shine through me so that I may reflect Your glory and others may see You and know You as well. In Jesus’ name, amen.
The third Person, Holy Spirit is the best gift from God and His, my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in my life!
What are your favorite sports to watch and play? I was a Michigan fan until three years ago because of what they said about Israel! Pro football I stopped watching because they are a contributor to human trafficking. They are also disrespectful to kneel while National Anthem. That’s an insult to those who fought for our freedoms and are still fighting for our freedoms. They have no right to disrespect our military and that is what they are doing. The football players who kneel the basketball players who disrespect our National Anthem should be held for treason.
Football players get millions of dollars and cry if they get hurt. Football is not football anymore it is a Sissy ball.
“God has granted me another child.” (Genesis 4:25)
Shalom Delana,
Seth is a popular name in the Western world, but few people know it’s the name of a significant man in the Bible that is packed with God’s hope and promises for our lives.
We read that “hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.” (Proverbs 13:12)
Let’s see how God planted a seed of hope in the spiritual DNA of Seth — a hope that all humanity has longed for and which we find fulfilled in Messiah Yeshua.
Restoring Hope Through Seth, a Son Appointed by God
We often hear about Adam and Eve’s dreadful decision to disobey God in the Garden of Eden.
As a consequence to their sin of disobedience, which was now part of their human nature and that of humanity forevermore, the couple lost their second-born child when their first-born son Cain, murdered his brother Abel.
Cain’s sin of murder evolved into a legacy of descendants who created weapons of warfare (as Tubal-Cain did) and seemed to glorify murder without consequence (as Lamech appeared to do). (Genesis 4:22–24)
So, God began a new line of righteousness, revealing the fullness of His grace and mercy:
“Adam had relations with his wife again; and she gave birth to a son, and named him Seth [shayth – שֵׁ֑ת], for, she said, ‘God has appointed [shat – שָֽׁת] me another offspring in place of Abel, for Cain killed him.’” (Genesis 4:25)
Through Seth, God laid a new foundation.
Jewish men read from a Torah scroll wearing a tallit (prayer shawl) and tefillin (phylacteries).
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In fact, Jewish sages consider Seth’s name to mean foundation because they say that from him the world was founded. (Midrash Aggadah Genesis 4:25)
Though God did set Seth as a foundation for the promised seed of Messiah, this is not the literal Hebrew meaning of Seth’s name.
The name Seth in Hebrew is Shayth – שֵׁ֑ת. It is related to the verb sheeth (שִׁית), meaning to set, place, or appoint.
God appointed Seth in place of his brother Abel, who died without any descendants, to begin a new bloodline that would bring salvation to the human race.
Cain Leads Abel to Death, by James Tissot
Losing a child to murder must be the most tragic event in any parent’s life, and even worse when it is committed by another family member.
But God knows our despair. He truly is our Comforter and is always ready to turn our ashes into joy, by placing a new path of restoration before us.
Satan, however, is continuously trying to replace God’s plans of hope and salvation for the human race with his plans of deception, failure, and ultimately death and eternal condemnation.
We see this pattern of Satan’s disruption at the very beginning of creation when he deceived Adam and Eve.
Adam and Eve (1919 Bible Primer by Adolf Hult)
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So in Genesis 3:15, God stepped in and placed the hope in Eve that one day her seed would “bruise” Satan’s head.
The Jewish sages write that “Eve had respect to that seed which is coming from another place. And who is this? This is the King Messiah.” (Genesis Rabbah 23:5)
Satan also understood God’s plan to save humanity through Eve’s seed by sending us a Messiah, so he has been trying to wipe out humanity (physically and spiritually). One way he does this is by taking advantage of our emotional wounds.
God warned Cain to master the sin that was boiling up in his heart — his hatred, anger, and jealousy against Abel. (Genesis 4:7)
Cain did not heed God’s warning. He acted on his feelings by murdering Abel.
Jealousy, anger, and hatred are just three of the toxic emotions that the enemy of God encourages in us to lead us away from God’s love and protection. Sadly, Cain did not seek God’s help in these matters.
Within seven generations, Cain’s descendants became skilled in warfare and killing without repentance; they also became skilled musicians of the flute and harp. (Genesis 4:21–24)
Though they acquired many practical skills, they lacked understanding and knowledge of God and His standards of righteousness.
And then came Seth, the son appointed by God. (Genesis 4:25)
Throughout history, God has appointed people to be a light in the midst of great darkness.
Restoring Hope Through Messiah Yeshua
Even though God appointed Seth to begin a new line of righteousness, it seemed that for several generations, Satan would still prevail.
Initially, God’s plan appeared to be going well. At the ripe old age of 105, God blessed Seth with a son whom he named Enosh. (Genesis 5:6)
Only after the birth of Enosh “men began to call on the name of the LORD.” (Genesis 4:26)
But that wasn’t enough to turn the hearts of humanity away from their sin.
Seven generations after Enosh, God saw that the thoughts of humanity were continuously evil and the earth was full of violence and corruption. (Genesis 6)
God’s plans to restore righteousness prevailed when He sent the Great Flood, which wiped out all of Cain’s descendants.
God is always in control of His great plan for humanity!
Noah and His Ark (1819), by Charles Willson Peale
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Seth’s righteous seed would continue through Noah and his son Shem, continuing down the bloodline to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who were the fathers of a chosen people called the Israelites.
God made a promise and covenant with Abraham that through his seed would come a nation of priests.
God appointed this nation to spread His righteous ways throughout the world.
But many of them followed their own ways, and did evil in His sight, as happened in the days of Cain’s descendants before the Great Flood.
It seemed that Satan had the upper hand again! The “nation of priests” had turned away from God’s laws and incurred the penalty of their sin — death and separation from God forever.
Nevertheless, God never wavered in His promise to Eve that through her seed the Messiah would come.
The apostle Luke records for us that Yeshua (Jesus) descended from the seed of Seth. (Luke 3:38)
Even though Adam and Eve’s one act of disobedience in the Garden brought us all condemnation, God kept His promise to Eve. He sent us — and appointed for us — His only begotten Son, Yeshua, as our Messiah. (Acts 3:20)
“Messiah’s one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone.” (Romans 5:18)
Yeshua in His perfect righteousness took our death sentence upon Himself by dying on the execution stake so that we could live free of eternal condemnation.
So, how do we apply His sacrifice (blood atonement) to our own sins?
By acknowledging our sins, repenting, and claiming His death in place of our eternal death.
Only then can we be restored to a right standing with God and enter into eternal life.
Being restored to God is like mending a broken ladder to heaven.
Believers Are Appointed to Be Like Seth
Just as God appointed Seth to begin a new line of righteousness in the bloodline of humanity, so too has God appointed us to begin a new line of righteousness in our own lives and future generations.
When we abide in Him and rely on His empowering Spirit in us, we sin less and repent quickly when we do, resulting in close fellowship with our Father who gives us joy, hope, and freedom.
Messiah Yeshua says, “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.” (John 15:16)
We are to persist in asking the Father for what we need to bear fruit for Him. (Romans 12:12)
The more we abide in Him and rely on His Spirit in us, the more we will be able to replace temptations to sin with God’s empowering Spirit.
Like Seth, we can set a new foundation for ourselves and the people around us.
“For this is what the Lord has commanded us: ‘I have appointed you to be a light for the Gentiles, to bring salvation to the ends of the earth.'” (Acts 13:47)
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Orwellian is an adjective that describes a situation, idea, or societal condition that George Orwell identified as being destructive to the welfare of a free and open society. Orwellian can be used to describe a political system in which the government tries to control every part of people’s lives. It can also describe aspects of society reminiscent of Orwell’s critiques, such as mass surveillance and restrictions on free speech. Orwellian can also mean relating to or suggestive of George Orwell or his writings, especially relating to or suggestive of the dystopian reality depicted in the novel 1984. In 1984, social control is exercised through disinformation and surveillance. Synonyms of Orwellian include dystopian, nightmarish, terrifying, gloomy, hellish, despotic, tyrannical, oppressive, repressive, dictatorial, totalitarian, authoritarian, and autocratic.
Describe a man who has positively impacted your life.
🔯 Jesus the Son of the Living God our Father in heaven! 🔯
JOY! For you shall go out with joy, And be led out with peace; The mountains and the hills Shall break forth into singing before you, And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
Isaiah 55:12
Jesus The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived
“He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village, where He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family or a home. He didn’t go to college. He never visited a big city. He never travelled two hundred miles from the place where He was born. He did none of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself. He was only thirty-three when the tide of public opinion turned against Him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies and went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. While He was dying, His executioners gambled for His garments, the only property He had on earth. When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend. Nineteen centuries have come and gone, and today He is the central figure of the human race. All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man on this earth as much as that one solitary life.”
THERE IS NO DOUBT THAT JESUS Christ is the greatest man who has ever lived in all of history. He changed the world forever. When He was born, He transformed the very way we measure time. He turned aside the river of the ages out of its course and lifted the centuries off their hinges. His birthday, His Incarnation, touched and transformed time. Now the whole world counts time as Before Christ (BC) and AD (Anno Domoni – in the year of our Lord). Jesus Christ is the central figure of history. More books have been written about Jesus Christ than any other person in history.
The world before Christ was a world without hospitals, a world without charity, a world without respect for the sanctity of life. Hospitals were an innovation of Christianity. Hence the healing symbol of a cross represents hospitals. The nursing profession was founded by Christians, such as Florence Nightingale, out of devotion to Christ. One of history’s greatest humanitarian movements, the International Red Cross, was founded by Christians in response to the Scriptural injunctions to care for the sick and the suffering. Christians such as Dr. Louis Pasteur has fuelled some of the greatest practical advances in medicine. Pasteur has probably saved more lives than any other individual in history through his inventions. The whole concept of charity was a Christian innovation. Benevolence to strangers was unknown before Christ.
The teachings and example of Jesus Christ have inspired the greatest acts of generosity, hospitality, self-sacrifice and service to the poor, sick and needy over two thousand years. Before the advent of Christianity cultures practised slavery and human sacrifice – even the highly esteemed Greek and Roman civilisations. Child sacrifice was common among the pagan religions. The Aztec Empire in Mexico and Inca Empire in Peru engaged in slavery, ritual rapes and mass human sacrifice. Suttee, the burning of widows on the funeral pyres of their husbands, was common practice in Hindu India before the missionary William Carey arrived. Slavery was eradicated as a result of tireless efforts of Christians such as William Wilberforce and David Livingstone. Respect for life and liberty is a fruit of Christianity. Those promoting abortion, euthanasia and pornography are not offering us progress, but only a return to pre-Christian paganism. The positive impact of Jesus Christ on the world cannot be overstated. Everything from education to human rights, from public health to economic liberty – the things we cherish most and many of the blessings we take for granted – can be traced to the spiritual and the cultural revolution begun by Jesus Christ. The irrefutable fact is that Christianity gave birth to modern science. The scientific revolution began with the Protestant Reformation and the Bible played a vital part in the development of scientific discovery. Every major branch of science was developed by a Bible believing Christian. The Bible essentially created science. When we get into a car, start the engine, turn on the lights, drive to a hospital, receive an anaesthetic before an operation, and have an effective operation performed in a germ-free environment, we need to remember that we owe it all to Jesus Christ. “Every school you see – public or private, religious or secular – is a visible reminder of the religion of Jesus Christ. So is every college and university.” Dr. James Kennedy. The phenomenon of education for the masses has its roots in Christianity. The pursuit of the knowledge of God in a systematic, philosophical and in-depth way gave rise to the phenomenon of universities all around the world. It was the Christian faith that gave rise to the idea of higher learning. Most of the languages of the world were first set to writing by Christian missionaries. The first book in most languages of the world has been the Bible. Christianity has been the greatest force for promoting literacy worldwide throughout history. The Christian missionary movement in the 19th Century pioneered tens of thousands of schools throughout Africa, Asia and the Pacific Islands – providing education for countless millions, even in the remotest jungles, giving the gift of literacy to tribes which had never before had a written language. There is no doubt that Jesus Christ was the greatest Teacher the world has ever known. When He spoke, “They were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority…”
Jesus Christ Within Me Amen
Mark 1:22. The life, teachings and example of Jesus Christ have profoundly influenced the whole development of education worldwide. The Great Commission of our Lord Jesus was to “make disciples of all nations…teaching them…”
Matthew 28:19-20. From the very beginning Christians were establishing schools. Amongst the many innovations in Christian Education was that these Christian schools taught everybody, including girls and women. Formally educating both sexes was a Christian innovation. The Greeks and Romans before the birth of Christ did not formally educate girls. Only boys from the privileged classes obtained an education. Christianity revolutionised education by making it available to all classes and both genders. Saint Augustine observed that Christian women were better educated than the pagan male philosophers. Every branch and level of education was pioneered by Bible-believing Christians. The concept of graded levels of education was first introduced by a German Lutheran, Johan Sturm, in the 16th Century. Another Lutheran, Frederick Froebel, introduced kindergartens. Education for the deaf was also pioneered by Christians. Before Jesus Christ, human life in the Greek and Roman world was extremely cheap. Infants born with physical defects such as blindness, were commonly abandoned to die in the wilderness. In Greece, blind babies were cast into the sea. Those who survived their blind infancy, or became blind later in childhood, usually became galley slaves, and blind girls were commonly assigned to a life of prostitution. However, Jesus Christ showed particular compassion for the blind, healing many blind individuals during His ministry on earth. When the Roman persecution of the Church ended, in the 4th Century, Christians established asylums for the blind. In the 19th Century, Louis Braille, a dedicated Christian who lost his eyesight at age three, developed the world’s first alphabet that enabled blind people to read with their fingers. Sunday schools were begun by Robert Raikes in 1780 to provide boys and girls from the poorest homes with the gift of literacy and the riches of the Scriptures. The first universities grew out of the monastic missionary centres, which had discipled Europe. The first university lecturers were the missionary monks who had collected books, accumulated libraries, copied manuscripts and were uniquely equipped for advanced academic study. Most universities began as Christian schools, including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Oxford, Cambridge, Heidelberg and Basel. The greatest invention in the field of learning, the printing press, by Johannes Gutenberg, was also a fruit of the Christian faith. The first book to be printed was the Bible. The very name “university” testifies to its Christian origins. University means “One Truth”. Isn’t it time that teachers, lecturers and professors took an in-depth look at the greatest Teacher the world has ever known, the greatest Book ever produced and the Faith which inspired and pioneered every major branch of education and science?. Just consider some of the everyday things which have been inspired by the Bible. The word “breakfast” comes from the concept of breaking the fast. The word “restaurant” comes from Jesus’ promise in Matthew 11:28 “Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” The first restaurant founded in Paris in 1766 placed that verse from Matthew 11:28 in bold letters outside this first public establishment dedicated to providing meals in a pleasant atmosphere. The fact that our week consists of seven days is a testimony to the fact of God creating the world in six days, resting on the seventh. The practice of Sunday being a day of rest dates back to the Christian tradition of honouring the first day of the week as the Lord’s Day, a testimony to the fact that Jesus Christ rose from the dead on the first day of the week. Every time a newspaper publishes the date, it is a testimony to the centrality of Christ. When we call this the year 2006, we are acknowledging that Jesus Christ is the central focus of history. This is the year 2006 AD, ‘in the year of our Lord’. The very word “goodbye” comes from a parting prayer: God be with ye. The word “holiday” comes from holy day. The Bible, particularly the Ten Commandments, laid the framework and legal foundations of Western civilisation. The very first statute, the first written restriction on the powers of government was the Magna Carta of 1215. It was written by a pastor and thoroughly saturated with Scriptural principles. The Bible has inspired the greatest literature, the greatest art, the greatest examples of architecture, the age of exploration, world missions, the rule of law, the separation of powers, checks and balances, representative government, the sanctity of life, and so much more that we take for granted. Christianity introduced a respect for life and liberty that was completely unknown before the coming of Jesus Christ. In the ancient world, the teachings of Jesus Christ halted infanticide, liberated women, abolished slavery, inspired the first charities and religious organisations, created hospitals, established orphanages and founded schools. In the medieval times, Christianity built libraries, invented colleges and universities, dignified labour and converted the barbarians. In the modern era, Christian teaching has advanced science, inspired political, social and economic freedom, promoted justice and provided the greatest inspiration for the most magnificent achievements in art, architecture, music and literature. Christianity has been the most powerful agent in transforming society for the better across 2000 years. No other religion, philosophy, teaching, nation or movement has changed the world for the better as Christianity has done. Jesus Christ is the greatest Man who has ever lived, and the Bible is the greatest Book ever written. The Bible is the number one best selling book in all of history. It is estimated that well over 30 million Bibles and 100 million New Testaments are printed every year. The Bible has also been translated into more languages than any other book in history.
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Good News of Great Joy Luke 2:8-11 (KJV®) There were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
One of my favorite Christmas movies is A Charlie Brown Christmas. Charlie is confused when his friends are obsessed with getting the presents they want and finding a perfect tree for their Christmas play. In frustration, he raises his hands and asks, “Isn’t there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?” “Sure, Charlie Brown,” Linus replies. “I can tell you what Christmas is all about.” Linus takes the stage and recites Luke 2:8-14. Linus was wise beyond his years and gave us one of the cornerstones of a biblical worldview: The birth of Jesus is good news of great joy, and it’s a message for everyone.
THINK ABOUT IT Find a way to keep the true meaning of Christmas alive all season, even amid busy holiday preparations. You will be enriched, along with all those around you.
PRAYER Heavenly Father, thank You for sending Your Son, Jesus, to dwell among us, reveal Your character, and offer Himself as a sacrifice for our redemption to You. May the reality of the Living Christ be made more greatly known in our midst—a reality more powerful than any opposition. Let Jesus be alive within us in a brand-new way. In His name, amen.
Rare Coins Found In A Dead Sea Cave Offer First Solid Evidence For The Maccabean Revolt 2,200 Years Ago – Ancient Pages https://flip.it/HveGDS
Pray first than read the only True Word you can trust, and obey His Word by asking Jesus for help and He will help anyone who asks because He said so! Are you feeling discontented in a particular area of your life? Ask God to help you to learn to be content as we develop a healthy change in behavior. According to His will for you in your life.
January 13th, 2023: Learning to be Content Right Where God wants us to be! Philippians 4:11 – I have learned to be content whatever the cirumstances. Words from Paul. Have you ever notice yor children are when they are sleeping? (And so well-behaved too!) THere are some days when those hours of rest are the only hours of contentment. Let’s face it; it’s not just the children who struggle with geeling discontent. Thankfully, God’s Word gives us the answers we need when we go to Him in prayer and reading the clues to finding contentment. God speaksto our hearts through His Love Letter to His children.
The Apostle Paul learned to be content. It’s wasn’t automatic for him, or for me, and it isn’t for you either. The very word learning implies a change in behavior. We have no idea what Paul specifically did to change his behavior, but he did find contentment. For each one of us, learning to be content involves more than reading a well-written book or hearing a gripping sermon on contentment. Those two sources can give we helpful insructions for achieving our goals, but ultimately we are the ones who need to change. With God’s help we do change when we allow Jesus to take control. An initiate change happens like Paul, we can learn to be content right where we are in “whatever the circumstances.” We can choose to change in our behavior, but we can’t do it without Jesus we need His Spirit with us to help. That’s where trusting God comes in. “In God We Trust!”
Ralph Waldo Emerson, On Heroism: The interest these fine stories have for us, the power of a romance over the boy who grasps the forbodden book under his bench at school, our delight in the hero, is the main fact to our purpose. All these and trandscendent properties are ours. … Let us find room for this great guest in our small houses.
Even Though it has only four letters, “HERO” is a big word, overflowing with connotations of GREEK warriors, Roman gods, medieval saints, revoltionary leaders, and larger-than-life individuals performing extraordinary deeds or acts of courage. Every culture, inevery age, has had its heroes-men (and, less frequently, women) who lead by example and uplift us all ub the process. Many of htese heroes become deeply embedded in national mythology. What (where) would America be without George Washington, Sacagawea, Danial Boone, Abraham Lincoln, Sojourner Truth, Jane Addams, Babe Ruth, Charles Lindbergh, Douglas MacArther, and there are many others? Historians have sometimes created heroes by well-wrought phrases and carefully chosen stories, but more often of late, scholars and writers have seemed intent on picking apart the reputations of once-revered Americans. The late twentieth century has been especially unkind to the celebration of national heroes. This debunking has even reached the general public. Who today can talk of Thomas Jefferson without mentioning slaves, or John F. Kennedy without speaking of his extramarital affairs? And yet our thirst for heores continues unabated. The reasos aare not hard to see. In May Satton’s memorable phrase, “One must think like a heore to behave like a merely decent human being.” And as a sports-minded commentator put it once, “History is meaningless without heroes; there is no score before they come to bat.” This article is to remind and educate the children of 2000s about our forgotten heroes of America with the attempt to enlarge and uplift our past rather thean just to question it. Anyone who studies the past, whether a professional historian or a casual reader, knows the happy serendipity of discovering an unknown or little-understood character. Here, thirty-five of America’s leading and myself a writer, the thirty-five are all members of the Society of American Historians. I am posting the facts of our past and believe we need to educate our children around the world of our history here in America and around the world. , we are sharing our favorite stories of the individuals the school books don’t talk about that has made a differece to their times and whose lives still stand as compelling models of heroism. Some of the characters were well knmown at the time and later forgotten; many never found popular recognition during their lifetimes. All have either dropped from sketchy presences; all deserve far wider recognition than they have received. Covering the entire panorama of the American past, from serrlement to hte twentieth century, their stories offer a freash way of thinking about America and its heroes, forgotten otherwise. At times it seems as if there are as many definitions of hero as there are heroic figures themselves. There are military heroes, political heroes, cultural heroes, folk heroes, and athletic heroes, and that doesn’t begin to exhaust the list. A hero exercises moral, ethical, or political building or rescuing comrades in battle. A hero “is a great human being.” A hero represents what a society considers its best qualities at a given time, a model of behavior and character to which we aspire: “a jack-to loife people above where they would be without the model.” As Dixon Wecter put it in an influential 1941 book, The Hero in America: A Chronicle of Hero-Worship, “The hero is he whom every American should wish to be. His legend is the mirror of the folk soul.” Why do heroes emerge when they do? The most often repeated truism is that heroes are created by popular need. Those that are hero don’t expect to be called a hero. In this view, the reception that greeted Charles Lindbergh after his 1927 transatlantic solo or the adulation that surrounded Babe Ruth reflected the needs and aspirations of 1920s America. Similarly, the elevation of George Washington to mythic stature spoke to the values and needs of the early years of AMerican Republic, with a little help from Parson Weems, author of those legends like Washington’s throwing the silver dollar across the Rapahonnock and his cutting and manipulated by needy public? Clearly there is something more at work. In contrast to celebrities, who are merely famous (in Daniel Boorstin’s deft formulation, “well-known for their well-knownness”), heroes have substance. They can be just as inspiring long after they have lived. We can peel away myths ans still admire them. I pray these articles some if not all of these heroes will inspire everyone in America. Ask yourselves if the same could be said of other well-known figures of hte past. There are many famous people in our history books but they fail to talk about the those people who has helped them get there. Who were famous but not necessarily heroic. Heroes have a special kind of staying power. As a general rule, it has proved easier to locate heroes in the past than to agree on who among contemporary figures is truly heroic. This is not to say that there is a lack of contemporary heroes. In fact, just the opposite is the case: there are too many. Perhaps out of an impulse to make people feel good about themselves, we anoint heroes constantly: (and that is a mistake. God is th only true Hero. He came to earth to save the humanrace from eternal death), the marine who eats bugs to stay alive for six days, the volunteer firefighter who rescues the child from the bottom of a well, the gymnast who ignores a painfully injured ankle to make the final vault for the gold medal. These are easy to spot but fleeting. Only rarely do leaders such as Vachlav Havel and Nelson Mandela so dominate their times that hteir stature as contemporary heroes seems destinate their times that their stature as contemporary heroes seems destined to be confirmed posthumously by history. The task of figuring out those lives among us are worth valorizing for the long haul is made even harder when an oversaturation of media images threatens to make us all candidates for our proverbial fifteen minutes of fame. As we bestow the designatinn “HERO” indiscrminately, the term threatens to become cheapened, almost debased. This turn feeds into the often-heard lament that “heroes just aren’t what they used to be.” But it is wrong to pin thismood solely on our cynical times. Americans were saying the very same thing in the complacent 1950s, the debunking 1920s (which nonetheless had little trouble in instantly recongnizing Charles Lindbergh as a hero), and the war-torn 1860s. As Dixon Wecter put it, “Today seems always less heroic than yesterday.” Many definitions of heroism set such high standards that only a tiny group of individuals could possibly meet them. (Abraham Lincoln comes to mind.) This book proposes a slighty more populist definition of an American hero, locating heroism and significance not just in political leadership or battlefield bravery (which are nevertheless well represented in the book) but also in the livers of ordinary individuals who made a difference to their times and our national history. That these contributions often went unrecognized does not diminish their heroic nature or significance. In a 1943 book, The Hero in History, philosopher Sidney Hook surveyed the various meanings and manifestations of heroism over the ages. In an attempt to sort through the verbiage on the subject, Hook drew a distinction between the eventful man and the event-making man. (This beingthe 1940s, those were the terms he used.) The proverbial eventful man is the boy who puts his finger in the dike and saves Holland from the flood. It doesn’t really matter so much whose finger it is: any number of Dutch citizens could have played the same role. The character is nonetheless eventful, for the action did change the course of future events. The event-making man, by contrast, takes a more active role in defining jis place in history, and his contributions are more dependent on his specific kind of character, whose individual actions are the result of superior intelligence, will, and character. Through his unique talents, he leaves a large imprint on subsequent event. This post will be full of event-making human beings, with a few eventful ones that changed America for good measure. Having categorized heroes in that way, Hook warns against recognoizing onlhy a narrow range of excellence, if only because elevating so few so high makes the great mass of individuals appear as a “dual, gray average.” He then proceeds to offer a formulations of heores on history that comes closest to the spirit of God in their lives: “If, however, we extend social opportunities so that each person’s specific talents have a stimulus to development and expression, we increase the range of possibility of distinctively significant work. From this point of view, a hero is any individual who does his work well and makes a unique contribution to the public good [emphasis added].” Without going to far as to declare “Every Man a Hero,” in this post we will talk about heroism is acts of individual courage. We find it acts of insiring excellence. We find it in individuals whose politicalm cultural, or soical actions truly did make a difference to their society at large. One prominent category of forgotten heroes in thhis colection is individuals who took a principled stand, no matter what the consequences. These acts of conscience or deeply held belief varied widely, depending on the person and the historical moment. Sometimes the motivations were religigious or ethical, such as Quaker Mary Dyer’s defiance of Putitan authorities in 1660 or actor Lew Ayre’s declaration of conscientious-objector staus during World War II. Other times the motives remain lost to history, such as what made an obscure drummer in New Haven named Robert Basset speak out for his politicasl rights in the 1650s. Often a specific event or moment in history called forth these principled stands, such as James Bayard’s brokering of the 1800 electoral stalemate, Nicholasa Trist’s defiant negotiation of the treaty that ended the Mexican War in 1847, and John McLuckie’s courageous stand in the homestead strike of 1892. During the repressive climate of World War I, Margaret Anderson risked jail to publish portions of James Joyce’s masterpiece, Ulysses; in the 1950s a crusading newspapaer editor, Hazel Brannon Smith, supported the emerging civil rights movement even though it made her an outcast among her white Mississippi peers. Performed in vastly different historical periods and with very different results, each of these individual stands was in its own way heroic, then and now. A somewhat overlapping category is what can best be called heroic or up lifting lives: that is, heroism that is not restricted to a single moment or act but resides in a lifelong commitment to an ideal. President John Quincy Adams lived such a heroic or exemplary life, althrough he has been over shadowed by other members of his illustrious family; so did John Chapman, better known as the legendary Johnny Appleseed. The daily heroic struggles of African Americans for respect and dignity are well represented by former slaves Thomas Peters and Susie King Taylor, and sharecropper Ned Cobb. William Chandler Bagley never let criticism stop him from promoting his controversial views on American education; Samuel Seabury’s devotion to public service culminated investigations that brought down Tammany Hall in the early 1930s. Anarchist Carlo Tresca spoke out against fascism and communism; reformers Florence Kelley, Caroline Ware, and Pauli Murray dedicated their lives to social justice. So did New Dealer Edward Prichard (with one notable lapse). We learn from these heroic lives about the rewards (and costs) of single-minded devotion to a cause ro a belief, of obstacles faced and not always overcome. These models of engaed commitment are compelling.At first glance another group of characters included in this post may appear neither event-making nor eventful, but merely exemplary. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark are properly celebrated as American heroes, but what about some of the lesser-known men with the expedition? In the case of George Drouillard, he was probably though of as heroic only by the few who knew him. Or, to take Stephen Jay Gould’s touching example, what about Dummy Hoy, an early deaf baseball player of exceptional but overlooked talent? By traditional definition, he would not qualify as a hero since the sportswriters of the day chose not to elevate him to that status. But in these cases and others, such as librarian J.C.M. Hanson and southern record Sam Phillips, the contributors to this post put forth their own arguments for a previouly unrecognized heroism that emerges when these characters are plucked from obscurity and their lives valued for qualities seen most clearly in retrospect or from distance. Then there is the category of female trailblazers and pioneers. While not all the women profiled in my post saw themselves as advancing the cause of women, they all had to buck or defy established gender definitions and expectations to do their lifer’s work, which adds a heroic dimension to their successes and struggles. Myra Bradwell was a pioneering lawyer who saved Mary Todd Lincoln from incarceration in a mental institution, Victoria Woodhull spoke out for free love in 1870s when such asubject was not considered fit for public discussion, and Emmeline Wells combined her devout Mormonism with support for woman suffrage and other reforms. In the early teentieth century, labor organizer O. Delight Smith battled the bosses while waging her own private battle for personal liberation, while Gerturde Ederle became a national hero swimming the English Channel. Prison administrator Miriam Van Wateers courageously defended her views when critics tried to dismiss her, and feminist Alice Paul soldiered on for the Equal Rights Amendment for more than five decades. These lives, along with the other women included in the book, confirm that an equal opportunity definition of heroism has much to offer. Finally there is the category of military hero. The Revolutionary War contributed Henry Knox, the Spanish-American War George Dewey ans Frederick Funston, and World War II the decorated combat veteran, Marine Sergeant John Basilone. Each served this country in time of war, won honor and recognition, but failed to maintain a hold on the collective national memory. These military heros remind us to pay attention to the other part of out title: Who gets forgotten, and why? Several of the stories present a fairly straightforward trajectory ofthe forgotten hero: sudden rise to fame and heroic stature, public acclaim and adulation, a cult of followers and fans, followed, sooner or later, by a falling out of piblic favor or disappearance from the public eye. The muddled attempts of Admiral George Dewey, hero of Manila Bay in the Spanish-American War in 1898, to translate his military fame into a political career led to the dramatic collapse of his popular following, to say nothing of his historical reputation. Gertrude Ederle came home in 1926 to a wildly enthusiastic ticker-tape parade but lived the rest of her life in obscurity. And the story of home-grown military hero Colonel Frederick Funston reminds us that some popularly acclaimed heros whose reputations fall into eclipse are perhaps best left forgotten. For the most part, though, the characters in our post were not kknown in their times, nor are they in ours. In many respects, thye are unsung or unrecognized heros as much as forgotten ones. The reasons for their absence form the historical reacords vary. Some were margibalized in history because they were on the losing side or were pushed aside by better-known comtemporaries; others were so controversial that they self-destucted and dropped from view. More to the point, until recently entire groups, such as women or African Americans, were not considered worthy of public acclaim except in highly exceptional situations. Tastes in heros change, and we cannot escape the fact the historians’ anointing of heroes, just as the public’s in general, is linked to the period in which we live A prime example is the large representation of women in this article more than a third of history is because some fourteen in all are women and other races are recoreded helping in our freedom and need to be written about. This is a start to show the participation in any comparable collection of heroes, a field whose very definitions and standards until recently were all male. In and odd twist, without hthese female heroes the men of our history of America may not of happened. It may be easier today to forget about the heros of yesterday because our schools do not talk about them. Women herosesare forgotten because women were so unfairlyexcluded from consideration in the first place. Recent trends in of writing about our women of war. Notably the rise of social history, of how women and other integrating ethnic and other American minorities, helped make expansive heroism possible. The contemporary approach, sometimes called “history from the bottom up,” actually dates to the 1920’s (cultural historian Caroline Ware, the subject of a chapter, was one of its early practitioners), but it found an especially receptive climate in the 1960s and 1970s. Social history is one, but by no means the dominant, branch of history included in this article. More traditional approaches, including a strong emphasis on political and diplomtic history, are also well represented. Politicains, diplomats, and military heros remain respected parts of our national heritage. They are joined in this article by a wider cast of characters who are true heros of our country. Heroism is all its diversity and heteogeneity over the centuries – old heroes and new, side by side, with neither supplanting the other. Every culture has its heros in our America history there are many collections of distinctively and wonderful heroes who built and risked their lives. It is hard to imagine such an eclectic mix coming out of our past wars with Germany’s past and China’s, or India’s. America is a constantly shifting, striving land of opportunitiies and second chances; the country’s deep-seated tradition of individualism has supplied fertile ground for soloists to buck the tide and heroes to rise above the crowd. While it is sometimes said that democracies have trouble choosing heroes, the American tradition of celebrating the self-made man (and, later, the self-created woman) gives lie to this. The individuals in this post made things happen;things that just didi’t happen to them. They made a difference. America has always looked up to these kinds of heroes, the movers and shakers, the doers and do-gooders. Let’s hope we always will.
Investigators filed simple assault and harassment charges against a Lackawanna County prison guard accused of spraying an inmate’s genitals with pepper spray.
Sgt. Scott Blume, 46, of Dunmore, was arraigned Wednesday in connection with an altercation with Damian Kellogg on Sept. 24. The incident did not come to light until Oct. 18, after Mr. Kellogg wrote to Judge Vito Geroulo to complain, according to members of the inmate’s family. Sgt. Blume is on paid administrative leave from the prison.
According to an arrest affidavit, the sergeant escorted Mr. Kellogg, who appeared to be intoxicated, to the restricted housing unit after he issued him a misconduct for having “hooch,” an alcoholic liquid made from fruit, inside the cell he shared with another inmate.
The incident, which was captured by a prison camera, began after Mr. Kellogg was placed in a holding cage and ordered to disrobe and change into a different prison uniform designated for restricted housing unit inmates. The affidavit says Mr. Kellogg began arguing with Sgt. Blume, which prompted the sergeant to enter the cage and grab Mr. Kellogg’s throat and pull his hair.
Sgt. Blume then left the cage. Mr. Kellogg refused to put on the new uniform and continued to argue with Sgt. Blume. That led Sgt. Blume to twice spray Mr. Kellogg through the “wicket,” a slot in the cell door used to pass food and other items to inmates, to get him to comply. Mr. Kellogg was then handcuffed and escorted to the restricted unit without further incident.
The affidavit does not identify the part of Mr. Kellogg’s body that was sprayed. In his letter to Judge Geroulo, a copy of which was obtained by The Times-Tribune, Mr. Kellogg said he was sprayed in the groin area while naked, causing him extreme pain.
Lackawanna County District Attorney Shane Scanlon said the prison contacted his office and requested an investigation. The incident was initially investigated under the prison rape elimination act based on Mr. Kellogg’s statement that he felt he had been “sexually violated.” After reviewing all evidence, detectives did not believe it rose to the level of a sex crime, Mr. Scanlon said.
“It appears as though the force used wasn’t necessary based on what we were able to review,” Mr. Scanlon said. “We felt, based on the evidence before us, it rose to the level of simple assault and harassment.”
Sgt. Blume, who has been employed at the prison since 2002, faces a disciplinary hearing that will determine whether he will remain on paid leave or be fired, said Donald Frederickson, general counsel for the county.
“It depends on what happens at the disciplinary hearing. If they feel they have enough evidence, they can dismiss him,” he said.
The World—Everything Is Different, but Nothing Has Changed
And the times are changing quickly. No one has any idea what the world will look like in ten years, let alone twenty or thirty. The rapid development of technology is more than we can take in. Those of us over the age of forty were born before the digital revolution really started. We’ve learned to use laptops, cameras, the Internet, and our personal electronic products, but it’s like learning a foreign language. But those under the age of forty have grown up with the digital revolution, and to them it’s their mother tongue. This has created the biggest generational gap since rock and roll.
Even greater is the moral generational gap. Those over forty in the western world grew up in a culture that still retained a semblance of its historic Judeo-Christian heritage. Our worldview contained some remaining vestiges of biblical truth. But our children are growing in an increasingly secular society.
But don’t despair. The things that matter most haven’t changed one iota. The little Book in my suit pocket is as unchanging as Him who is from everlasting to everlasting. That strengthens us whatever change may come.
Many at Galatia had been influenced by the “Judaizers, ” Jewish Christians, or at least Christians in name, who sought to be justified through keeping the Law of Moses. But Paul tells them that the true function of the Law was not to save but to be a “schoolmaster” or “teacher” to bring them to Christ. Once they saw the impossibility of keeping the Law and the great culpability of breaking it, they would see their need to be saved by faith alone.
Lord, that schoolmaster (your Law) that revealed our need of a Savior is still revealing to us our shortcomings. As love is the fulfilling of the Law, and to love God and neighbor is the sum of it, we see the Law is a helpful guide for Christian conduct. Use it to test us and show us our flaws, then turn us by grace to the keeping of it through love. Amen.
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:
To remove the curse of God for breaking his Law from us, Jesus took our guilt upon himself and suffered that curse in our place. God cannot demand “double payment” for sin, so that he cannot justly condemn those whose sins were paid for in full on the cross. That is why there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).
O Lamb of God, it is your blood that takes away the sin-debt of the world, even of every one who believes on your name. We could not bear the punishment of our sin, nor endure the day of God’s wrath against sin. We praise you for your work of love on the cross, where you redeemed us from the curse of the Law. Amen.
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
It is in God’s design of things that children should grow up and leave the home. It is normal that they should go out and begin their own home. For our families to be strong and healthy, unlike the “fractured” if not broken families the world is so full of, husband and wife must remain in close, intimate union. And this union is a picture of the union between Christ and His Church.
God, help us to work at our relationships with others so that they will be all you intend them to be. Let my relationship with you be the foundation for a good relationship with spouse, children, parents, all family and friends, and every acquaintance. Amen.
But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved; )
Perhaps the two sweetest words in the whole Bible are found here, “But God. ” In the verse just preceding, it is stated that believers were “children of wrath even as others” before their conversion. But God had a great love for them, which led him to “quicken, ” that is “raise to life, ” those who were dead spiritually. Paul then adds emphatically, “by grace you are saved. “
May we say with conviction, O Lord, that old Christian saying, “There, but for the grace of God, go I. ” May we recognize that it was your saving love that made the difference with us. We were dead to God, unable to respond properly to him. But your love laid hold on us, Lord, and you imparted to us life. And we know that yours is a love that “will not let us go.” Amen.
That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,
The Holy Spirit is here called the Spirit of Wisdom, using a grammatical construction that in the Greek indicates the Spirit is the “source of” or “giver of” wisdom. In 2 Timothy 3:15, we learn that the Scriptures are “able to make you wise unto salvation. ” When God opens our understanding to see the truth of the Gospel, he enlightens us and imparts to us wisdom to know and act on the truth. He then gives us hope of future glory and assures us of that hope by “the working of his mighty power” in us. That is the very power that raised up Jesus from the dead.
Open our minds more and more, we pray, to understand your truths. Let the “resurrection power” of God that raised Jesus Christ’s body from the grave raise up our spirits to live more and more a “resurrection life” of obedience to you. Amen.
And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
Faith is a gift from God, but it is also a thing that we are called to diligently work at and improve. In fact, these verses on diligence are further informed by verse 10 of the same chapter where our diligence is said to be the means of making “our calling and election sure. ” That is, when faith, virtue (moral fortitude), knowledge (gained through experience), self-control, patient endurance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love abound in our lives, it is fruit of righteousness that helps assure our hearts that indeed we are God’s children and will enter his everlasting kingdom (verse 11).
Lord, we take seriously your command to strive diligently after godliness and all Christian virtues in our daily walk. We know that you do not desire our faith to remain “alone, ” but that it should be accompanied by all Christian graces. We are encouraged to know that you will help us and guide us as we grow in all of these areas, step by step. Amen.
But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil.
There will be days when you are tempted and days when you need protection, but you are a child of God. God will never leave you or forsake you – you will never have to walk through these challenging times alone. He is always faithful. He offers his protection and will help you stay away from evil. He has given you his Holy Spirit as a guide. Trust the Spirit to alert you when you have stumbled into trouble and call on him for protection.
Dear God, when I am fearful and need courage, I know you will strengthen me. You are always faithful and you will never leave me – thank you! Help me to trust you to guide me through difficult situations and protect me from any evil the evil one tries to use against me. O Lord, make my faith stronger so that I do not have a spirit of fear. Thank you for rescuing me time and time again. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Isaiah was dirty and full of sin. He was unworthy to see God’s holiness. Then the heavenly being took a hot coal from God’s alter. He put it on Isaiah lips and his sins were taken away and cleansed. Similarly, Jesus cleanses us who have faith in Him. He cleanses us and He makes us pure. Jesus Christ is our only hope of salvation from our wickedness. He is the only way to the Father and to heaven. Do you have faith in Jesus to remove your sins? If you cannot confidently answer, think and pray about it. It is always better to be sure. It is okay to not be sure; there is no shame in that. Get on your knees and ask God to reveal Himself to You. Proclaim your faith in Him and give Him your life. This is the way to salvation from your wickedness, sin, and the punishment you deserve – that we all deserve, but Jesus bore. Moses had brought the Israelites out of Egypt and now they were wondering if they were any better off! They had reached the Red Sea, and couldn’t see any way around this barrier that had been placed before them. But God knew what he was doing and Moses followed his instructions and the sea parted so that the Israelites could pass through on dry ground. A question sometimes asked at a job interview is, “What do you do when you face an obstacle?” How would you answer? Would you try to go around it, through it, or perhaps over it? Moses could not go around his obstacle and knew that without help, he could never bring all the people, animals and supplies through it. So, he asked God for help. Was that the first thing you thought of? There is a saying, “If God brings you to it, he will bring you through it.” The key here is to ask God to bring us through it. We often face challenges in our lives, especially when we are trying to live as Jesus wants us to live. Have you ever been asked why you believe? If not you probably will be. It can be hard to find the right words at times, but God will give us the words if we ask. Just as he promised Samuel, Isaiah and the other prophets, he will not leave us on our own and will give us the words we need when we need them. The next time you meet an obstacle, let God lead you over, under, around or through it. He will guide us in the right way to go. Hundreds of years before Jesus was born, He was prophesied about. That He would restore and bring life not break and ruin. That he would bring forth judgment on the Earth, and people everywhere across the oceans would listen to what He had to say. Now thousands of years later, people all over the Earth still listen to what Jesus has to say. Jesus is glorified through all history. People on every continent and in every country listen for His voice and read His Word. Jesus, thank You for bearing the burden and punishment of my sins and wrongdoings. You are the only way to come to the Father and to everlasting life. I place my faith in You and You only. I believe that You, Jesus, are the Son of God. I believe in the Father and Holy Spirit also. I believe in the trinity and that the Trinity is one. I put no one else before You in my priorities. If You are not at my center, remove idols from my life. I place my life, faith, and trust in You. I repent from my wrongdoing, and I come before You in faith. My life is in Your hands. I come to You because You are gracious and let me call on Your name. Amen. The first thing Andrew did when He found out Jesus was the Christ was to go tell his brother. Andrew went and got Peter and brought him to Jesus. Andrew could have been scoffed at or rejected by Peter if Peter did not believe Jesus was the Christ; yet, Andrew took him to Jesus anyways, and I’m sure he was glad he did. You have Jesus, and you love Him. Have you tried to bring your family to Him? Knowing Jesus is the only way to eternal life, wouldn’t you want to try your best to introduce Him to your grandparents, mother, father, brothers, sisters, and cousins? Heavenly Father, give me strength and courage to introduce You to my family. They need You. I want to speak to them about You. Help me to tell them about You well. Help me to answer questions they have and to try to find them the answers I don’t know. Soften their hearts. Only You can bring them to You, so please do so. In Jesus’ name. Amen. And when they had preached the gospel to that city, and had taught many, they returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and Antioch, Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. Sometimes we grow weary as believers. Walking the road of faith gets hard. Other times it gets mundane. Sometimes doubt creeps in. We may even allow sin to fester in our lives and lead us to complacency and ceasing to listen to the Holy Spirit. But as believers, we can encourage our brothers and sisters to continue in the faith. Sometimes all someone needs is a reminder, encouragement, and support. Heavenly Father, help my brothers and sisters. Give them strength and endurance to continue in the faith You called them to. Place people in their lives to encourage them. Bring them to a deeper love for You. Make them to feel Your presence this week. Let them remember why they first loved You. You are our great love. You are the worthiest of our love. You are worthy of more than we can give. In Jesus’ name. Amen. Father God, You sent Your son to the world to save us. He was with you in the beginning. People everywhere listen to His words. Jesus is amazing and true. Thank You for Your goodness, and that You build up and care for the weak. Help Your Church that is scattered all over the Earth. Unite us, Your Bride. Help us to glorify you and to proclaim Your gospel to the nations. In Jesus’ name. Amen. When we reach a point of contentment, we are not moved by what another person does or does not have. Contentment prevents us from defining ourselves according to the world’s values. We become content through God, in whom we know we have everything we need. Eternal life, being the most important of it all. Dear God, I thank you that I can be totally content in you. You have filled all the gaps and voids in my life. I know that I will never find contentment in this world; only in you and you alone. I pray that more and more of your children will come to realize this too, Lord. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen. Sometimes people tend to take God’s love and everlasting mercy as a way for them to continue living irresponsibly. When they are confronted about their actions, their response is “God loves me for who I am. ” Yes, he does, but our love for Him should compel us to be convicted of our sins and confess them to him. God won’t hold our sins against us; he is quick to forgive and swift to restore. Dear God, once again I would like to thank you for your endless love and everlasting mercy. Father, I am sorry for any time I have taken you or your love for granted. If there has ever been a time where I tried to use the grace you have given so freely as an excuse to live irresponsibly, I humbly confess where I have erred, and I receive your forgiveness. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen. Dear God, I pray for those who have chosen to turn from you. Lord, I pray that something in their hearts will make them change their minds about you. May they experience your love, Lord, in all its fullness and may they be compelled by this to know you more. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen. Someone once said that there are no u-hauls behind hearses. The implication is that you can’t take it with you when you die. There’s a story of a man who tried. When the doctors told him he had a short time to live, he converts some of this cash into gold bricks, puts them in a suitcase and instructs that this suitcase should be buried with him. When he approaches the pearly gates carrying the suitcase, St. Peter stops him and asks to look inside the suitcase. The angel Gabriel asks, “What’s in the suitcase?” “Pavement,” replies St. Peter. The story illustrates that in heaven what we consider to be wealth on this earth is really nothing. Heaven’s streets are paved with gold. That would be the equivalent of us finding some kind of value in asphalt or concrete chunks here on earth. We spent a lot of time trying to get things on this earth. We spend a lot of time working to get more and more and more stuff that we just don’t need. If you don’t believe it, take a look at what happens when a person dies without an heir. A lawyer has to come in, open up the house, and sell off all the belongs to settle the estate. Thousands and thousands of dollars worth of stuff–sometimes still in boxes–is sold for pennies on the dollar. An entire lifetime of obtaining things and the only thing that happens is that strangers come in to pick over the possessions a giant yard sale. This passage tells us that we are to be content with what we have. We should be content with food and clothing. As long as our needs are met on a daily basis, that’s really all we should ask for. Everything else is just bonus stuff and if we are spending time away from our families, if we’re spending time focusing on getting rather than focusing on living, then we’re being very foolish because we can’t take it with us. When the end comes, all the stuff that we bought stay right here our closets or our garages. While we’re on this earth we need to make the right choices and be sure that we are able to be content with what we have. Then we may end up with few things that we went. Childbirth can be a painful experience. Even with the best pain killers available, the stress and trauma of childbirth cannot be lessened greatly. A mother giving birth may travail in labor for hours. Her contractions may be painful and the birth process may be grueling. In that period of labor, she suffers greatly. But as soon as she sees the face of that newborn child, all of that passes away. The suffering, the pain, disappears and is replaced by joy. Here Paul gives us a similar situation. Paul explains here that the Gospel has great power to sustain us in times of trouble. He was not talking only about the trials that Christians in his time had to endure, but the sickness, pain, and trouble that all Christians, throughout time would have to endure. He says that no matter how difficult the suffering in this world is, it does not even compare to the glory that awaits us in heaven. The glory that will be revealed to us is so great in comparison to the suffering that preceded it. We will forget our former trials when we get a glimpse of that glory. We are children of God. Think about that for a minute. The God of the universe sent his son to be born of a woman on earth living under the law – a woman like us. He sent his son so that we might be free from this law – the law of sin and death. We are free because of his sacrifice, and we have been made sons and daughters of God through him. How amazing! Paul cries out here in anguish over indwelling sin that remained in him. He longs for the day when he will be free fully from the power of sin. While we live, a conflict is in us between the old and the new natures. It is a daily battle. It does not end until we leave this world, but God can help us subdue the flesh and live increasingly out of the new nature. Father, I thank You for being with me in my trials. I know that I will have to suffer some in this world and I know I will have to go through trials. I also know, however, that what will be revealed to me when I finally see You face to face will make it all worthwhile. My suffering will fade to nothing as I see the glory of Your face. Amen. If we hate that which is evil, we will love that which is good. The two go together hand in hand. You cannot love God and love Satan; you cannot love God’s Law and also love the paths of unrighteousness. At least, your heart of hearts and your new nature from the new birth will seek what is truly good; the old nature will seek sin, but the Christian must subdue and overcome it. The age old question of who’s right! There’s a commercial for an automobile company that uses the slogan of “either/or, or both/and” that I kind of like. Not that I’m supporting the company, but because I believe we sometimes think in an either/or way when it’s really important to be a both/and kind of person. In today’s gospel, Martha is busy about hospitality and Mary extends hospitality in a quieter manner. We need both, and we need to be both. There are times when we need to be about doing what Jesus tells us to do, but if all we do is “do” and we don’t take the time to listen, we just might get it wrong. Mary sits and listens to Jesus while Martha feels overwhelmed with her tasks. When Martha complains, Jesus tells her not to be anxious and worried, and I think that here is the key. When we take the time to sit and listen to Jesus and then move on to follow the will of God, we don’t have to be anxious and worried; we can relax in the knowledge that we are doing our best, and that is what is required of us. Jesus doesn’t say that what Martha is doing is unimportant; he just seems to imply that she shouldn’t be so focused on her work, that she neglects her need for being present and listening. We, too, can be so busy doing that we forget to take the time to pray, to reflect on Scripture, to sit and listen to Jesus. During the sometimes lazy days of summer, let us take advantage of the laziness and just sit in God’s presence and reflect on who we are and who we are called to be, so that when the time comes to be busy again, we’ll be ready. Micah is a prophet at around the same time as Isaiah and has come to prophesy punishment to those who are behaving in an unjust manner. Just because a person has the power or authority to act unjustly, doesn’t mean that he should. One might think that harassment or schemes to defraud people of their property or their inheritance, are something new, but Micah lets us know that these things have been going on since antiquity. God isn’t any happier today about these practices than he was then. Micah made known God’s displeasure to the kings and leaders of the day. He warns that their unjust practices need to stop and that the people need to repent or else they are leaving themselves open to attack by armies greater than theirs. As we know, Assyria and Babylon both decimated Judah and Israel. Think about the Roman Empire, they too had fallen into such a moral decay that they were open to being overcome by Constantine. What about today? We have become lax in our time as well. Corporate takeovers that have little respect for the rights of the workers have become common. Even companies that have not been taken over have been known to change their policies and limit the benefits that their employees enjoy. Communities can take property away from individuals for schools, highways, shopping centers, by eminent domain and those who live on the properties are forced to move. Although owners are reimbursed, renters need to fend for themselves. Looking out for number one, whether personally, communally or nationally can lead to ignoring the essentials and there is nothing to stop others from overcoming us. As Micah says, we need to work for justice if we want peace. And so still today, the Jewish people celebrate Passover and one of the traditions is for someone to ask why we celebrate this feast, and the youngest child answers with the story of the Passover. Jesus was celebrating Passover with his friends on the night before he died. I know this reading comes up during the summer, so it’s not the time for Passover, or the Passion of Jesus, but I have a question. What are our traditions surrounding the passion and death and resurrection of Jesus? Do we celebrate the end of Lent on Holy Thursday? Do we spend time with Jesus on Good Friday remembering his sacrifice? Is Easter all about candy and the Easter bunny? Today, many of our churches are practically empty on Easter Sunday and the children think more about an Easter egg hunt than God. Would the youngest member of the family be able to tell the story of why we celebrate? God brought the Israelites from slavery to freedom at the original Passover, but Jesus brought us from the slavery of sin and the freedom to celebrate eternity with him in heaven. One was temporary, the other is permanent. Why is it that we take this celebration so lightly? Even though it’s summer, let’s take a moment to think about how the story of our faith is being passed on to our youth. God’s name as it is written in Scripture is either Jehovah or Yahweh, or just YHWH. All are translations of He is Who He is. Because the Jewish people did not call God by the name he gave Moses. It is for this reason that the Jewish people were so angry when Jesus said that before Abraham came to be I AM. To say God’s name was to blaspheme. For the people of Moses’ time, names had power. They felt that to use the name of God was to say that they had power over God, and so the name was sacred. I can remember an uncle of mine who would often take not just the Lord’s name in vain when he was angry, but would also use it to curse whoever he was angry with. I’m sure you know many people who do the same without even blinking an eye. Good Christians, all, who would be horrified if they were called on it. We are offended when people use foul language, why are we not offended when the Lord’s name is taken in vain? A friend of mine used to work in the office of a major manufacturing company and the man who sat behind her was continually cursing the company and its managers. One day she had had enough and turned to him and said, “No wonder the company is going to pot, you keep asking God to damn it.” He had never considered that he was both swearing and cursing, but he stopped. What about us? Do we need to clean up our speech, or ask other to do so? How do I praise God? God doesn’t want an animal sacrifice he wants a sacrifice of the heart. He wants a joyous heart, a heart that bursts into song because it can’t help itself. A heart so full of gratitude that song is the only way a body can express it. I love music; I love to sing the songs of praise in church. I might not have the best voice but it’s the one God gave me so he must think it’s good enough. There is something about music that lifts the soul. It’s no wonder that the psalms are music. In fact, this psalm even tells us which piece of music to sing it to – “Lilies!” When we think about it, some of the most glorious music was written for religious reasons: Handel’s Messiah is but one example. When we listen to the anthems of many nations, we see how they give thanks and praise to God. Whether we raise our voices in song or not, what is important is that we raise our voices in thanks and praise to God. Our prayers acknowledge that we know who is in charge, to whom we owe everything and who deserves our praise. Lord, I pray for the older people who do not know You. I pray they will find Your love and joy. Let them lean on You for strength and understanding. Help them to smile and live out the remainder of their days for You. Get them the word if they don’t have access to it. Bring Christians into their lives to speak life into them. You are the God who cares for the young and old, weak and strong, rich and poor. Bless our elderly and help us honor them. In Jesus’ name. Amen. The writer of this Psalm desperately wanted God to show His strength through him, an old man. He wanted everyone to know God’s power. As we grow old, we can still show God’s strength. As we become weaker, we can proclaim how strong He is. Do not lose heart as you grow old. The retired missionary now goes door to door to preach even though he’s walking slowly. The woman who started doing jail ministry long ago is often decades later faithfully visiting the jail. Whatever God is calling you to, God is greater than your age. Lord, as I grow old, let me still serve You faithfully. When I’m weak, help me to show others Your strength. Through wrinkles, let others see the joy on my face that comes only from You. Even if I’m moving slowly, let me still move for You. I will gladly do Your will until my last breath. If I’m on this earth, You have me here for a reason. I will continue to live for You. In Jesus’ name. Amen. We were all introduced to our savior, Jesus Christ, through someone else. When we truly understand salvation, it is not enough for us to simply receive it. In our excitement, we will gladly go tell others about this miraculous savior. The prophet describes how when a city came to know the Lord, they rushed to pray and seek God so that they could go to another city to share this good news. The Word tells us we are commissioned to tell others the good news – let us go quickly!
It is amazing how selfish we can be sometimes. A line of traffic on a busy street. We’ve been waiting for what seems like forever at a traffic light. Out of the corner of our eye, we see a car trying to pull out of a parking lot, the driver desperately looking for an opening. We avert our eyes and grip the steering wheel, determined not to give an inch. Someone else can make that sacrifice. Selfish, our selfish nature makes it very difficult to understand the great sacrifice Christ made for us. When we were useless sinners, when we were absolutely powerless, He chose to die for us. Sinners….who hated God, who delighted in the very things God hates. He died for us. It’s hard to get our selfish brains wrapped around that notion. We were on the verge of perishing and He gave Himself away to save us. Who does that? What a great friend Christ is to us! That He would lay down His life to save such selfish, sinful beings.That is what is most amazing about His sacrifice. If we had all been good, righteous people–then perhaps it is understandable that He would be willing to die for us. But we were ungodly. And He STILL died for us. The depth of His love was such that, even in our sin, He loved us and died for us. He took our sin upon Himself. He knew about everything we ever did or ever would do. It didn’t matter. He did it anyway. His unwavering love for us sent him to the cross.
In this scripture, Jesus explains to His disciples (including us), that He chose us. Traditionally, in Jewish culture, a person would choose his own Teacher. In this case, Jesus makes it clear that these disciples were chosen by the Teacher, instead. This applies to us today as well. Christ has chosen us; we didn’t choose Him first. Not only has He chosen us, He has ordained us to be fruitful, meaning that we are to be productive and successful in spreading the Gospel. We were set apart for this purpose by Christ. Christ expects this fruit to “remain” or be permanent. Whatever good work we do for the Kingdom should be lasting and eternal. When we bear good fruit in this way, the consequences are that our prayers will be answered by God. Christ tells us that whatever we ask in His name will be done. This is an encouraging promise, that both gives us validation and shows us our purpose in this life.
Lord, I thank You for choosing me and ordaining me. Help me to spread the Gospel far and wide in such a way that it makes an eternal impact on people’s lives. I thank You that You will hear and answer my prayers as I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Position of the Parties Zechariah 3:6 > The Angel of the Lord gave this charge to Joshua: 7 – “This is what the Lord Almighty says: “If you (I) will walk in my ways and keep My requirements then you will govern My House and have change of My Courts, and I will give you a place among these standing here.
Psalm 33:12 – “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD.”
America was founded on godly principles rooted in God’s eternal Word. Freedom is God’s idea, and implanted within every human heart by the Creator who made them is the yearning to be free. Leviticus 25:10, inscribed on our Liberty Bell says, “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all inhabitants thereof.”
The golden, majestic appearance of our Declaration of Independence – the parchment papaer, the resolute signatures of those who represented the voice of a new nation, and the rich content of this anointed document, bear testimony to the powerful faith which underscored the conviction on which our independence is based: “… the Laws of Nature and Nature’s of God that all men are created equal, and they are endowed by thier Creator with vertain unalienable Rights… appealing to the Supreme Court of the world. …”
faith of our earliset leaders can be seen in the content of their state constitutions, penned by some of these men who wrote the Declaration of Independence. The Delaware document, for example, written by Thomas McKean, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation, and George Read, also a signer of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution ofthe United States, says, “Every person who shall be chosen a memeber either house, or appointed to any office or place of trust, before taking his seat, or entering upon the execution of his office, shall take the following oath: “I…do profess faith in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ His only Son, and in the Holy Spirit, one God, blessed for ever more; and I do acknowledge the holy scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by divine inspiration.” 1
Authors of the State Constitution of Pennsylvania, Benjamin Rush and James Wilson, shared a like conviction. They wrote: “Each memeber of the Legislature, before he takes his set, shall make and subscribe the following declaration: I do believe in one God, the Creator and Governor of the good and the Punisher of the wicked. And I doacknowledge the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by divine inspiration.”
The North Carolina Constitution bears witness to a desire that believers shape the governing process: “No person who sahll deny the being of God or the truth of the Christian religion, or the divine authority, either of the Old and New Testaments, or who shall hold religious principles incompatible with the freedoms and safety of the State, shall be capable of holding any office or palce of trust or profit in the civil department within this State.”In 1892, the Supreme Court noted that each of the 44 states then in the Union had some kind of God-cnetered declaration in its constitution. Indeed, the writings and governing documents of our Founding Fathers attest to their belief that a central faith in the Almighty was essential, and that ths new America could only move forward as “One Nation Under God.”
God raised up America for His own special purpose: to be a witness to His great goodness, to carry out the Great Commission and to be a light to the world. His drea from the beginning was to build a nation through whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed. It is being accomplished everywhere born-again, Spirit-filled believers are standing in faith, boldly releasing His covenant promises for the fullfillment of His purpose. As you read this post, get to know and appreciate these God-anointed, founding documents of America that are based on Hos eternal Word, and the other historical documents included in this post. Set your hearts to pray for the great experiment in freedom, dedicated to the Lord Jesus Christ. Allow God’s Word to flow from your mouth in faith as we partner with Him in intercession for the manifestation of His plans, purpose and pursuits for One Nation Under God – the United States of America in Jesus name Amen.
Here is a prayer that Kenneth Copeland wrote for the United States Government: James 5:16 – “The earnest (heartfelt, continue) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous pwoer available [dynamic in its working].”
Following are Scripture-based prayers that will help connect your heart with the heart of the Father for our nation. 1st Timothy 2:1-3 says we are to pray, intercede and give thanks for kings and all who are in authority. This is God’s command to every believer. Praying for godly leaders is productive toward God’s plan and purpose for our nation.
Proverbs 21:1 tells us, “THe king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.” God will turn the hearts of our leaders as we heed His instructions to pray for them.J
Jeremiah 1:12 – Pray this paryer in faith, believing you receive, and remember God watches over His Word to perfrom it!
Father, I pray according to 1 Timothy 2:1-3 > which says, “I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of god our Saviour.”
First, I ask for righteousness to prevail in our nation. I ask for godly counsel and wisdom for our cheif justice of the Supreme court, associate justice and all judges across this land. Isaiah 1:26 says, “And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, the city of righteousness, the faithful city.” Thank You, Lord, for restoring to our nation righteous judges who hear Your voice and adhere to Your Word.
I pray for our president, his cabinet, the vice president, the secretary of state, and the State Department; secretary of the treasury and the Department of Defense; intelligence agencies, law enforcement and the Department of Justice; secretarty of education and the Department of Education; governors and state governments; mayors, city councils and all others in authority at every level government. I pray they receive the wisdom of God, act in obedience to that wisdom, and for the power of God to flow in ther lives. Show them Your plan for the reversal for every evil way, and give them the courage to execute it. I declare that they hear and obey Your voice, Lord, and sho9w honor and respect for Your Word and your people.
Heavenly Father, and Lord God Almighty, I pray forthe members of Congress: our Senate and House of Representatives. I pray they find Your peace and direction, and they act and lead according to Your Word A house divided against itself cannot stand. Therefore, Father, I ask that You unify them in righteousness be manifest in the hearts of all in authority, and that they seek after You with all their hearts, souls, minds and strength.
In Jesus name I speak a hedge of protection over all men and women in law enforcement and the military. According to Romans 13:4, they are minsters of God, Your servants, for our good. Thank You, Lord, that Your angels surround them and keep them, that no evil befalls them, neither does any playue or calamity come near them. I declare that your hand is on them, and that yor deliver them from who lie in wait to harm them. Thank You for helping them discharge their duties with great wisdom and anointing, and walk in truth, integrity and honor. Wherever they go, they carry the anointing and light of freedom as representatives of a covenant nation.
According to Matthew 18:19 and @Now Father, you Corinthians 10:4, I bind the principalities and powers and rulers of the darkness of hte world ranged against this nation and pull them down. In the Name of Jesus, I bind every evil spirit of strife and division, and I break your power to divide this nation. I speak unity, harmony and peace over America. I declare that Jesus is Lord over the United States of America!
Now Father, Your Word says to pray for the peace of Jerusalem because those who love Jerusalem shall prosper. Because You love Jerusalem and all of Israel receives th Shalom of God, which brings wholeness – nothing missing, nothing broken. I pray no leader of our nation will make any decision that will harm Israel in any way, and that Yo make Youraself known and reveal Your perfect will to Israel and its leaders.
Thank You, Father God for hearing my prayers, in Jesus name, thank You for answering John and my prayers in Your Son Jesus name, I love You Father God in Jesus name, I love John very much. Forgive me for douhting You. Thank You Father God for lovong me in Jesus name, I thank You for softening the District Attorney in Jesus name. I am asking You for bring John back to us, To You first Father God in Jesus name Amen.
Genesis 6:11-12 > Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and full of violence God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their way.
Local government are encourging arrests to line their pockets. While Lackawanna County holds innocent people
There is big money in county jails in America, and Lackawanna County in Scranton Pennsylvania is no different. I believe the county should be charged with Capital Kidnapping. I know their corruption all to well. I was held three weeks longer then I should of been.
The first signal of the new wave of possible wrongdoing happened in September 2017, when agents from the state police and attorney general’s office raided the county’s Administration Building, jail and work release center. Five months later, in February 2018, the attorney general’s office charged seven current and former prison guards with sexually abusing female inmates or having inappropriate contact with them.
InfoThis is archived material from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) website. It may contain outdated information and links may no longer function.
Former Lackawanna County Commissioners Robert C. Cordaro and Anthony J. Munchak Sentenced Today on Corruption Charges in Federal Court
U.S. Attorney’s OfficeJanuary 30, 2012
Middle District of Pennsylvania(717) 221-4482
The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that former Lackawanna County Commissioners Robert C. Cordaro and Anthony J. Munchak were sentenced in federal court in Scranton today by United States District Court Judge A. Richard Caputo.
Cordaro and Munchak were sentenced today to serve 132 months (11 years) and 84 months (seven years), respectively, in federal prison following their convictions after a jury trial in June 2011 on multiple felony counts to corruption during their tenure as County Commissioners. In addition, Cordaro was ordered to pay restitution to the IRS in the amount of $98,856, a $1,800 special assessment and serve a three-year term of supervised release. Cordaro had previously agreed to forfeit $355,000 to the United States which represents proceeds from the criminal offenses. Munchak was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine, a $800 special assessment and also serve a three-year term of supervised release.
Cordaro was ordered to surrender immediately, Munchak will report on April 3, 2012 to commence service.
Judge Caputo said in imposing the sentences today that the defendants violated the public trust and the oath they took as public officials. He noted that these are the fundamental foundations of our system and that the defendants turned that system “upside down.”
At the sentencing hearing today the government contended that Cordaro and Munchak’s criminal activities were “serious, extended and extremely damaging.” The Government stated that Cordaro and Munchak used their positions as majority County Commissioners to “engage in a pay-for-play scheme by accepting money in exchange for their official actions,” and violated the trust placed in them by the citizens of Lackawanna County.
“People have the right to expect that their elected leaders will honor the oath they swore to. The federal justice system must and will stand up to protect that expectation,” said Peter J. Smith, United States Attorney.
The Government was represented in the Cordaro and Munchak case by Assistant United States Attorneys Lorna N. Graham, Bruce Brandler and William S. Houser. The investigation was conducted jointly by the FBI and the Criminal Investigations Office of the IRS.
History of This Case
Cordaro and Munchak were originally charged in a 40-count indictment in March 2010 with racketeering and related charges in connection with alleged improper actions of the former Majority Commissioners in accepting payments and other benefits from individuals and entities doing business with Lackawanna County.
In October 2010 a superseding indictment was filed on substantially the same charges. The superseding indictment was presented due to changes in the application of the Federal Honest Services mail fraud statute resulting from a Supreme Court ruling.
In June 2011, following the 12-day trial, a federal jury in Scranton returned guilty verdicts against Cordaro and Munchak on charges of racketeering, bribery, conspiracy and tax fraud charges as described below.
Robert Cordaro
Conspiracy to Commit Theft or Bribery Concerning Programs Receiving Federal Funds (1 count);
Bribery Concerning Programs Receiving Federal Funds (2 counts);
Conspiracy to Commit Extortion Under Color of Official Right (1 count);
Extortion Under Color of Official Right (2 counts);
Money Laundering Conspiracy (1 count);
Money Laundering (3 counts);
Racketeering (1 count);
-Racketeering Conspiracy (1 count);
Conspiracy to Defraud the United States(1 count);
Subscribing and Filing a Materially False Tax Return (3 counts); and
Income Tax Evasion (2 counts)
Anthony Munchak
Conspiracy to Commit Theft or Bribery Concerning Programs Receiving Federal Funds (1 count);
Bribery Concerning Programs Receiving Federal Funds (2 counts);
Conspiracy to Commit Extortion Under Color of Official Right (1 count);
Extortion Under Color of Official Right (2 counts);
Subscribing and Filing a Materially False Tax Return (1 count); and
Income Tax Evasion (1 count)
SCRANTON — Seven current and former Lackawanna County Prison guards arrested this afternoon on charges of sexual abuse at the jail are free on bail. Troopers arrested former prison guard John J. Shnipes Jr., 42, of 115 Simpson St., Archbald, at his home. Shnipes is a former Archbald councilman who lost his seat in 2017. He didn’t say anything as troopers led him by his arms to their vehicle and declined comment later when he was escorted out of the state police barracks in Dunmore. Charges against Shnipes, 16 in total, include involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and institutional sexual assault. State police arrested George T. McHale, 50, of 513 Florin St., Scranton, and Jeff Staff, 42, address unknown, at the jail. Both were taken away in handcuffs and escorted to marked state police vehicles. Correctional officers James J. Walsh, 51, Paul J. Voglino, 45,Mark Johnson, 53, and George R. Efthimiou, 50, also were arrested. Walsh has been on paid administrative leave. He is charged with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse by forcible compulsion and by threat of forcible compulsion, according to a court docket made public late this afternoon. Voglino is charged with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse by forcible compulsion and threat of forcible compulsion. McHale is charged with institutional sexual assault, indecent assault without consent and indecent assault by threat of forcible compulsion. Johnson is charged with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse by forcible compulsion and threat of forcible compulsion, institutional sexual assault, indecent assault and harassment. Efthimiou and Staff are both charged only with institutional sexual assault. The dates the offenses are alleged to have occurred range from January 1999 through 2011, according to publicly available dockets. State police arrived at the jail after 2 p.m., not long before shift change, and acted with silent efficiency. Both McHale and Staff were visibly surprised. McHale’s eyes stared forward. His face was a pale mask of shock. Staff wanted a Times-Tribune photographer to stop taking pictures. The state police didn’t react. The camera kept clicking. Warden Tim Betti said no warning of the arrests was given but he could “surmise” what the arrests were about. He stood in the parking lot of the jail as the state troopers put the two under arrest. He planned to address his staff after and was sure that morale would be low. “It affects my morale,” Betti said. “It’s a little dour…it matches the sky right now.” The arrests come six months after agents from the state Attorney General’s Office and state police raided the jail, the county work release center, 911 center and county administration building related to a grand jury investigation into alleged sexual abuse of inmates. County Judge James Gibbons, who is chairman of the county prison board, said Wednesday afternoon he did not know any details of the arrests. He said he was not notified in advance that the arrests would happen. Bernie Brown, a lawyer representing Staff, Voglino and Johnson called the charges “trumped up” and claim the guards’ accusers went to the attorney general and are telling stories to increase their chances for settlements in their lawsuits. The investigation arose from a civil lawsuit filed by a woman who alleged she was sexually abused by six guards from 2007 to 2016. Three additional women later joined the lawsuit and implicated other officers going back to 1998. The lawsuit, which is pending in federal court, contained allegations against prison guards the women said committed the abuse, as well as fellow guards who witnessed it but did nothing to stop it. It also alleges prison and county officials knew about the abuse and tried to cover it up. The accused guards coerced the incarcerated women into the sex acts by giving them extra privileges or threatening to take away privileges or place them restricted housing, the suit said. When they were free, the guards manipulated them into having sex by threatening to have their probation revoked. Two of the women alleged they tried to report the abuse to other guards and prison officials. Rather than help them, the guards harassed and berated them and actively helped the abusive guards conceal the assaults, the complaint said. The suit alleged most of the abuse happened between 1998 and 2013, but some as recently as last year. All seven arrested were taken to the state police barracks in Dunmore for interviews and then were arraigned by Magisterial District Judge Paul J. Ware at his office on West Pine Street. Their preliminary hearings are scheduled for 11:15 a.m. on Feb. 23. A press conference is slated for some time tomorrow, Trooper Mark Keyes, a spokesman at the Dunmore barracks, said. Walsh and McHale are free on $50,000 unsecured bail and Voglino, Efthimiou and Staff walked on $25,000 unsecured bail. Johnson posted a bail bond for $25,000. Shnipes posted a bond for $100,000. An attorney representing Shnipes said he is looking forward to his day in court. JEFF HORVATH, STAFF WRITER, CONTRIBUTED TO THE REPORT Check back for updates.
The day after the guards’ arrests, Attorney General Josh Shapiro called it “the opening chapter” in trying to end abusive prison culture. The grand jury presentment charging the guards mentions others who knew about abuse but may have done nothing about it, though Shapiro declined to speculate then about charging them.
None of the cases of the guards arrested — John Shnipes, George T. McHale, Jeffrey T. Staff, James J. Walsh, Paul J. Voglino, Mark A. Johnson and George R. Efthimiou — have reached the trial stage. I just wander if these men are requiered to regieser with the State police as Sex Offenders. I just heard that the county government paid $700,000 to these C.O.’s who raped the women in jail. I seen male C.O.’s go into female inmates cells. We were told of we said anything we would never see our kids agasin. Because the C.O.’s could pin charges on us for telling on them.
If God has asked you to lay something down or pick something up — I promise you that in due time you will see the fruit of that decision. You will never ever regret obeying Him no matter how extreme, crazy, hard or illogical it might look. — it’s worth it every single time! Before […]
In this passage, we see a God who is not too happy with His chosen people. Because of their disobedience, they have blackened the name of the Lord. His reputation has been smeared among the heathen people of the area. He tells Isaiah to give His people a message: that He plans to restore His own name. He will ensure that these people know that He is God. Wow! Wouldn’t it be an awful thing to let God down in this way? To “profane” His name among His enemies? Sadly, we do the same thing when we don’t give Him the honor that is due Him while we are among his enemies in the world. When we allow people to speak against Him, or when we fail to lift Him up in their presence, we blacken His name. We cause Him to have to “vindicate the Holiness” of His own name, because we have refused to make His name holy. What a dreadful and treacherous decision! To put ourselves is such a position is a foolish thing indeed.
The entire book of Romans 8 about the assurance of salvation. Every Christian wants to be assured that he is actually saved. Many people wander around “in the flesh” believing that they’re saved, but if they read this chapter, it becomes the actual measure of salvation. It is a really good chapter to read if you want the assurance that you are indeed saved. This particular verse says that those who are walking in the spirit of God are the sons of God. If we’re led by the Spirit of God, what does that mean? What Paul is trying to tell us here is that if we are walking in the spirit of God, then we are actually going to kill the sin in our lives. We’re going to want it dead in order to please God, to glorify Him. You see, people who are not in the spirit, who were still walking in the flesh don’t really want to kill their sin. People who lie don’t want to stop lying; people who gossip don’t want to stop gossiping. If they do put on some semblance of killing their sin, it’s just so they’ll look better– not because they want to please God, Paul tells us here that if we truly want to be the sons of God, the children of God, then we are going to be led by the spirit. So one assurance of our salvation is this: we ask ourselves the question, “Am I trying to kill my own sin because I want to please God?” If the answer to that question is “yes,” then you are the child of God. That is evidence that the spirit lives in You because only the spirit in You would want to put an end to the sin in Your life. If you want assurance of salvation, look within to see what your motivations are for ending your own sin.
Father, I want to make Your name Holy. I want to be Your champion and tell the world of Your goodness and righteousness. Help me not to cower in the face of Your enemies, but to stand up and defend Your honor. Help me to be strong, even when I am afraid of the adversaries around me. With Your help and with Your power, You will never have to clean up a mess I have made of Your name. Amen.
Ruth had every reason, humanly speaking, to leave her mother in law Naomi as her sister Orpah had just done, but she would not do it. Why? It was because of more than mere social and emotional attachment, and it certainly was not for any financial gain. In fact, she faced the possibility of being a social outcast in Israel and of remaining unmarried for life, wheras she could easily find a new husband in Moab. But Ruth would not go back to the old gods and old ways of her past. She steadfastly clung to the Lord Jehovah, having been converted to Him in her heart.
And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: Ruth
Okay, over the past 6 months many of you AMAZING Christians that read my blog have contacted me and informed me of your favorite books of the Bible, Bible prayers, and today I’d like to share with you the 99 bible verses that have been shared with me the most! I’m certain that a few […]
And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:
But if ye will not obey the voice of the LORD, but rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then shall the hand of the LORD be against you, as it was against your fathers.
Famine, war, captivity…these are all the consequences of rebellion the people of Israel experienced. The Old Testament has example after example of the Lord turning his hand against those who did not obey him. It can be easy for us to judge these Old Testament citizens, but if we look closely at our own hearts, we will see that there have been times when we have disobeyed and rebelled against the Lord’s commandments. Rather than judging the Old Testament body, we should use their experiences as a guide. Rather than continuing in sin and having God subject us to his wrath, we should seek his face.
The early Christians were known by the example they showed in how they loved one another. In this short passage, we learn that they shared what they had so that no one went without. If we read further in chapter 4 we hear of how they sold their possessions and turned in their monies so that the apostles could distribute it according to one’s needs. Does this sound like the Christians of today?
Actually, it does describe Christians living in the poorer countries of the world. Many missionaries have described the welcome they have received and the good will of the people in the poor countries where they have served. I experienced the same on a mission trip to Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the world. In the wealthier countries, keeping what they have seems more important than sharing with others. People are willing to donate what is not longer useful, clothing they have outgrown, furniture they need to replace, other items they no longer have room for, even cars that no longer work. But, are they willing to rent an apartment at a lower rate so that a poor family can live safely? They might rent to a low income family but usually with a government subsidy so they don’t lose any money. The rich can seem to feel that it’s their right to keep whatever they’ve earned – which is not actually wrong, but what of their responsibility to help the needy?
In the Gospel, Jesus points out clearly talks about our responsibility to the poor and the vulnerable, a preferential option for the poor. What about us?
Often we focus on the great, unearned, unlimited mercy God has shown us. Now we need to consider how we have shown mercy to others – and maybe even to ourselves! Where do you have a problem with being merciful? It could be with forgiveness, compassion for those who suffer from addictions, or who beg, or we might not be welcoming to the stranger. Each of us has a problem with someone or something. I worked in retail during high school and college and then married into the world of retail. One of my problems is having patience with store salespeople who are rude or who don’t have a clue about the products they are selling. I try. There are members of my family who don’t speak to one another. I know people who are so unforgiving that it interferes with their relationships.
God is merciful to us when we don’t know what we’re doing. He sends us help when we are lost. He forgives us over and over again. I also know people who continue to carry their past mistakes with them to the point where they can’t move forward in their lives. God has forgiven them, why is it that they can’t forgive themselves? Today, think about the areas of your life where God has shown you mercy, and then look at the areas where you need to pass that mercy on to someone else – or maybe decide that it’s time you put down your own baggage and forgive yourself. With God’s help, we can grow in our ability to share the mercy we have been shown with others and so relieve them of some of the pain they may be carrying.
Each time the Lord saved them, they poured out their thanks and let everyone know what God had done for them. It is now the Easter season, and we need to be just as enthusiastic in our thanks and praise as the Israelites. If they were grateful for the victories won for them, how much more should we be for Jesus winning the victory over sin and death. This is a battle that has won a victory for all people for all time. Never again will this battle have to be fought, and we didn’t have to fight it, Jesus did it all. There is a hymn that I’ve sung every year at the Baptist church during the celebration of the Seven Last Words on Good Friday that is called just that: “Jesus Did it All.” Not only did he do it all, but by his resurrection he let us know that the victory was won, the gates of heaven were opened and the power of Satan had been defeated. All we have to do is live each day following in the footsteps of Christ and accept the gift we have been offered. Why do we hold back? Do we take our faith so for granted that we no longer feel the need to say thanks? This year, let it be different and let those around you know of your gratitude for the victory won for you and for them.
Isn’t it amazing that God has the power to do great things through us? He pours His Spirit out and through Him alone, men and women are able to do things that they could never do apart from God. God can do anything. He has the power to move mountains, to speak His words through Humans, and to do great works in and through us. God is truly amazing!
I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.
Here Jesus talks to His Father one of His final prayers on this earth. In this verse, He refers to the work He has completed. He knows that His time on earth has come to an end. He has reviewed His life and He says, essentially, “Father, I’ve done the best I can. There is nothing more for me to do here. I’ve prepared them as well as possible. It’s time to do this thing I came here to do.” And with that, it begins. The greatest act of love known to mankind is about to unfold.
What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
One of Kari Jobe’s most famous songs is “You are for Me.” Based on this passage, the song emphasizes the love of a God who is faithful on our side. No matter what goes on in our lives, He is there. Paul makes an important argument here: God gave His own Son for us. How can He not be on our side? He chose us. Every decision we make, every step that we take, God is with us. He sees our going out and our coming in. He sees when we fall and when we fail and He still is on our side, with unconditional love. It doesn’t matter what the world has said about us. It doesn’t matter what we sometimes say about ourselves. He, the Lord of All, is for us. He’s in our corner and with God in our corner, who dares to be against us.
Lord, I thank You for what You did for me at Calvary. You gave Your life for me. You loved me unconditionally. You suffered and died for me. Help me to be worthy of Your sacrifice. Amen.
Dear God, you are holy and you are jealous. When we are tempted to disobey your commands, remind us of the Israelites and the ways they suffered because of sin. Remind us that sometimes we must be disciplined to learn a lesson, but help us to learn this lesson from those who went before us rather than having to walk through it ourselves. Forgive us for our sins, O Lord. Do not turn your hand against us. Please extend mercy on your children. In Jesus’ name, amen. Lord, I believe that You have the power to do mighty works in and through me. I believe that You work through Your Church in mysterious ways. I give my life to You to do whatever You want in and through me. You are mighty and wonderful. Your ways are mysterious, and I praise You for Your great works. In Jesus’ name. Amen. Father, I know that You are for me. I know that You have my best interest in Your heart. You gave up Your own Son to give me life and I thank You. If You are for me, then no one can be against me. Amen.
If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
1 And the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. 3 And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it; because that in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made. 4 These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that Jehovah God made earth and heaven. 5 And no plant of the field was yet in the earth, and no herb of the field had yet sprung up; for Jehovah God had not caused it to rain upon the earth: and there was not a man to till the ground; 6 but there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. 7 And Jehovah God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. 8 And Jehovah God planted a garden eastward, in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 And out of the ground made Jehovah God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 10 And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became four heads. 11 The name of the first is Pishon: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; 12 and the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone. 13 And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Cush. 14 And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth in front of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. 15 And Jehovah God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. 16 And Jehovah God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. 18 And Jehovah God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him. 19 And out of the ground Jehovah God formed every beast of the field, and every bird of the heavens; and brought them unto the man to see what he would call them: and whatsoever the man called every living creature, that was the name thereof. 20 And the man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the heavens, and to every beast of the field; but for man there was not found a help meet for him. 21 And Jehovah God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof: 22 and the rib, which Jehovah God had taken from the man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. 23 And the man 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. 24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. 25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
Moses is giving the Israelites his final teaching and advice before they enter the Promised Land. He is reminding them of all the blessings the Lord has bestowed on them from the time he rescued them from Egypt. Moses knows he will not be entering the Promised Land with them because he has displeased God. He also knows that it is important for them to remember these blessings so that they might remain faithful to the commandments. We know from reading Scripture that the Israelites did forget, did disobey, did not remain faithful to the commandments. Jesus commented that the Pharisees of his day obeyed the human laws more than God’s laws. What of us today? Do we keep the commandments? I have mentioned before, that many of us consider the commandments “suggestions” or commandments for only the time in which they were given. But think of the discord caused by dishonesty, greed and abuse of authority. Moses’ advice to the Israelites is just as true today as it was millennia ago. Following God’s law is just as important now as it was then. As we proceed through Lent, let us read again Moses’ address to the people in Deuteronomy.
This is not an easy commandment to live up to for any man. Any comparison to Jesus is one that we can never live up to, but should always be our goal. Love your wives as Jesus loved the church. She will certainly be a lucky woman!
Lord in Heaven, Jesus Christ, I am so lucky to be a member of your holy family. My only wish in this prayer is that I can create a family in your image, and love each member as you have loved me. Amen.
When we’re going through storms of life, hurricanes of emotion, and waves of wallowing, we need faith in God’s power in order to stay calm. God can still the storms and hush the hurricanes in our lives if we trust him and pour out our hearts to him.
Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
Our human vocabularies are vast. Most adults know 20,000-35,000 words in their native language. Avid readers probably know substantially more. That’s a lot of words! But even with those vast vocabularies, there are moments when words elude us. Sometimes this happens when we pray. Sometimes our need is so great that we cannot find the words to express it in our own language. That is when the Holy Spirit steps in and intercedes for us. He searches our hearts and our minds and sees what we need. He translates that need directly to God, in a language that only God understands. In a sense, the Holy Spirit becomes a “code talker.” His transmission by-passes our human brain and his code–the “wordless groans”–is unintelligible to the Adversary. In this way, the Holy Spirit helps us when we don’t know how to help ourselves.
If we hang our hopes only on this temporary world, we are pitiful this world is full of disappointments. We are bound to be let down time and again when we place our hope only in this world that we live in. Everything on this earth will come to an end. Nothing here lasts. There has to be something more. Something greater than what we know in the here and now. Something that endures. There waits for us a hope greater than anything we know on this earth and that is the hope we find in Christ and in our place with Him in eternity. His resurrection has paved the way for our own. We have nothing to lose and everything to gain when we set our hopes on the world beyond this one.
Today, Christianity is divided. I’m not necessarily speaking about denominational differences because as long as a denomination is accurately presenting Jesus’ message of the Good News, there is no problem. The problem comes when people who call themselves “Christian” preach and teach a false gospel. Just as there were Jewish leaders who tried to challenge Jesus in his own time because they didn’t like what he was teaching, there are people today who don’t want to follow the totality of his message. We learn from Paul that there is “One Lord, One Faith and One Baptism, One Lord of All.” If this is true, then why do we consider one baptism more valid than another? If the Lord is Lord of all, then why do some claim to belong more to the Lord than others?
Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians, chastises them for their divisions saying, “I am of Paul and I am of Apollos,” etc. Paul reminds them that if they were baptized into Christ, that should be the end of it. It doesn’t matter who led you to Christ, it’s more important that we came to him. Let us work together to help end a spirit of division among all of us who are blessed to be baptized into Christ Jesus, our Lord.
Temptations abound. As a Christ follower, we must understand that we will face temptation regularly. Even Christ was tempted. However, Christ did not give in to temptation. He withstood it. Using his example, we can also withstand temptation. The Lord knows we will be challenged, but He promises that we will be rewarded for staying strong and not giving in to temptation. When we do not allow temptation to separate us from the love of God, we will be blessed with eternal life.
Dear God, When I struggle with temptation, help me to cling to you. Do not allow me to fall under the weight of temptation and give in. I know sin separates me from you – help me to withstand temptation and hold strong to your truths so that I will never be apart from you. Help me to follow the example of your son, Jesus Christ, gave us when he resisted the devil. Give me the strength to endure temptation so that I may spend eternity with you. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Salt is a wonderful additive to food, especially if it’s freshly ground sea salt. But let it set on a shelf or in a shaker for too long and it becomes clumpy and tasteless. You might as well be shaking air on your food. It does nothing for a salad or a stead. It is useless because it’s lost its flavor. The only use for it is to throw it on the walkway to melt the ice in the winter. Jesus tells us in Matthew that we are like salt. In this passage, He talks about useless salt, salt that has lost its flavor. If we are the salt of the world, and we lose our flavor, then we become useless. We cannot improve anyone’s situation. We can’t properly minister to others because we have nothing to say. We are as useless as the salt that people use on the ground in the winter time. We aren’t fulfilling our purpose. We must strive to ensure that we don’t lose our “saltiness.” We must read and study and spend time in prayer so that when the time comes when someone needs our salt, we will be ready.
Father, Help me maintain my “flavor”. I never want to be useless to You. I want to be an asset to You. Show me how to maintain my “saltiness” so that I may be useful to the building of Your kingdom. Amen.
Everyone faces temptation every day. It may be something as unimportant as having an extra piece of candy, or skipping exercise, but it could be as serious as giving in to road rage, drinking too much, cheating, gambling, taking drugs, or – insert your favorite vice! Jesus was tempted to let us know that this is something we all must overcome. When you face a temptation, how do you respond? Jesus looked to scripture for the answer. The other day I was reminded of the old WWJD bracelets that young people wore to remind them of how we should act. A good question to ask ourselves – What would Jesus do? I have often said that the first commandment is one of the hardest to keep. “I am the Lord, your God. You shall not have strange gods before me.” Think you don’t have a problem with this one? Think again! Every time we put our needs before God, we set ourselves up as gods. Every time we choose pleasure, money, sports before God, we have created idols for ourselves. We believe that the Holy Spirit who lives within us will give us all the strength we need to overcome the temptations that come our way. But we need to listen to God, not to the music, movies or TV, to help form our consciences so that we know what is right and what is wrong. In other words, do as Jesus did and look to the Bible for our answers for how to live and we will be armed to fight the daily battle that is sure to come our way.
Joshua witnessed many mighty acts of the Lord as God led the Israelites through the desert with Moses. The people of Israel served the Lord while Joshua was alive and while others who had seen God’s works were alive. It is much easier to have faith when you witness things first or second hand. It’s harder when you believe without seeing. Jesus said that those who believe without seeing are blessed. Let’s have faith in our great God even though we have not seen.
Heavenly Father, You are great. Your character has never changed. You were the same yesterday and You will be the same tomorrow. I can always count on You. I have not seen Your face, but I have read of Your works throughout history. Make my faith stronger, and help me to believe. Have faith for me when I lack faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
This question is no easier to answer today than it was in the time of Jesus. What do we do when the demands of the gospel and the demands of the government conflict? Although there are many people in the world who don’t have the option to choose their leadership, many countries support an elected government. The government in question could be local, state or national. We pay taxes and by doing so, often support behavior that we do not agree with and that does not agree with gospel values. However, if we do not pay what is due, then we are subject to fines and possibly imprisonment. How did Jesus answer the question of his day?
Render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what is God’s. We may not be able to easily choose what our money supports, but we can help determine what our government supports. We have a responsibility to know what those running for office – on every level – stand for and support. We have a responsibility to let our elected leaders know what bills we want them to help pass, and those we want to see defeated. This also means that we have a duty to register to vote and then to vote on Election Day. Apathy enables special interest groups to have the last say, not the general public.
How is this rendering to God the things that are God’s? How is this showing our support of the poor and the vulnerable? Are we willing to take the time to check out which of the candidates are committed to our values? Are we willing to make sure that our vote will count on Election Day? If we are truly committed to social justice, then we will take the time to make sure that when we render to Caesar, we are also rendering to God. And we can continue to advocate for those who do not have the rights that so many of us take for granted.
It is sometimes easy to get caught up in other people. We see people all the time who do bad things, but still seem to get ahead. The fellow employee who goofs off, but still manages to get promoted. The classmate who cheats on every assignment, but gets a scholarship. It is frustrating. In this passage, David reminds us that the wicked never really prosper, though it may seem that way. We are not to be envious of these people because they are doomed to “wither” and “fade.” Wickedness does not last. Only the things of God endure.
Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity.For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.
Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind.
What’s it all about, in the final analysis? What’s the meaning and purpose of life, when you get to the very core of the matter? This is the subject that the teacher, King Solomon, deals with in the Book of Ecclesiastes. Before he gave his final answer in Chapter 12 at the very end of the book, he explored the various alternatives there are in the search for meaning in life.
His search encompassed many of the things that foolish people try to center their lives around. He tried wine, women, and song. He tried to find meaning in great projects like the building of homes, vineyards, gardens, parks, and reservoirs. He bought himself everything money could buy—slaves, flocks and herds, goods and services of every kind imaginable. He amassed gold and silver and got himself a harem. He searched everything and everywhere and denied himself nothing in the process.
What he discovered is that focusing one’s life around these creaturely things is meaningless: “Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 2:11). Nothing could satisfy his search for meaning and purpose, because everything he tried was temporary and limited in nature. You heap up wealth, for example, but you have to leave it to somebody else when you die. Thus, “This too is meaningless” (Ecclesiastes 2:17-19). Even the search for wisdom itself is meaningless if it is done for its own sake.
Here in chapter 12 the teacher comes to the end of the matter. The final purpose of life cannot be found within the created order. Every good thing within the creation has its time and place, but if it is set up as the very focus of one’s life it turns into an elusive and meaningless chasing after wind.
Only the reverential fear of and love for the transcendent God of heaven and earth can provide us with a life whose significance will last for all eternity. Only the keeping of His commandments can offer us a purpose that will never fade away or lose its meaning.
Insight The writer longed to get away from the bustling world to meet God inside his dwelling place, his holy temple. Challenge We can meet God anywhere, at any time. But we know that going into a church building can help us step aside from the busy mainstream of life so we can quietly meditate and pray. We find joy not only in the beautiful building but also in the prayers, music, lessons, sermons, and fellowship.
What does this sweet prayer teach me? It shall be my evening’s petition; but first let it yield me an instructive meditation. The text informs me first of all that David had his doubts; for why should he pray, “Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation,” if he were not sometimes exercised with doubts and fears? Let me, then, be of good cheer, for I am not the only saint who has to complain of weakness of faith. If David doubted, I need not conclude that I am no Christian because I have doubts. The text reminds me that David was not content while he had doubts and fears, but he repaired at once to the mercy-seat to pray for assurance; for he valued it as much fine gold. I too must labor after an abiding sense of my acceptance in the Beloved, and must have no joy when his love is not shed abroad in my soul. When my Bridegroom is gone from me, my soul must and will fast. I learn also that David knew where to obtain full assurance. He went to his God in prayer, crying, “Say unto my soul I am thy salvation.” I must be much alone with God if I would have a clear sense of Jesus’ love. Let my prayers cease, and my eye of faith will grow dim. Much in prayer, much in heaven; slow in prayer, slow in progress. I notice that David would not be satisfied unless his assurance had a divine source. “Say unto my soul.” Lord, do thou say it! Nothing short of a divine testimony in the soul will ever content the true Christian. Moreover, David could not rest unless his assurance had a vivid personality about it. “Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation.” Lord, if thou shouldst say this to all the saints, it were nothing, unless thou shouldst say it to me. Lord, I have sinned; I deserve not thy smile; I scarcely dare to ask it; but oh! say to my soul, even to my soul, “I am thy salvation.” Let me have a present, personal, infallible, indisputable sense that I am thine, and that thou art mine.
1 Timothy 6:12 Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
2 Corinthians 7:5 For even when we came into Macedonia our flesh had no rest, but we were afflicted on every side: conflicts without, fears within.
2 Kings 6:16 So he answered, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”
Ephesians 6:10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.
1 Samuel 17:45 Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have taunted.
2 Samuel 22:33,35 “God is my strong fortress; And He sets the blameless in His way. • “He trains my hands for battle, So that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
2 Corinthians 3:5 Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God,
Psalm 34:7 The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear Him, And rescues them.
2 Kings 6:17 Then Elisha prayed and said, “O LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” And the LORD opened the servant’s eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
Hebrews 11:32-34 And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, • who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, • quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it cometh.For the LORD shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken.
When we see wicked people entering troubling times we should not fear – and neither should we gloat. We should simply take comfort in God, knowing that all will be well and that the fate of the wicked is not the fate we, God’s children, will face.
To whom are we to show our loyalty?
This question is no easier to answer today than it was in the time of Jesus. What do we do when the demands of the gospel and the demands of the government conflict? Although there are many people in the world who don’t have the option to choose their leadership, many countries support an elected government. The government in question could be local, state or national. We pay taxes and by doing so, often support behavior that we do not agree with and that does not agree with gospel values. However, if we do not pay what is due, then we are subject to fines and possibly imprisonment. How did Jesus answer the question of his day?
Render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what is God’s. We may not be able to easily choose what our money supports, but we can help determine what our government supports. We have a responsibility to know what those running for office – on every level – stand for and support. We have a responsibility to let our elected leaders know what bills we want them to help pass, and those we want to see defeated. This also means that we have a duty to register to vote and then to vote on Election Day. Apathy enables special interest groups to have the last say, not the general public.
How is this rendering to God the things that are God’s? How is this showing our support of the poor and the vulnerable? Are we willing to take the time to check out which of the candidates are committed to our values? Are we willing to make sure that our vote will count on Election Day? If we are truly committed to social justice, then we will take the time to make sure that when we render to Caesar, we are also rendering to God. And we can continue to advocate for those who do not have the rights that so many of us take for granted.
In Genesis, the rite of circumcision was begun as part of God’s covenant with Abraham. It was a way of setting God’s people apart (though it was only performed on males). Today it is practiced by a wide variety of cultures, primarily for hygiene purposes. But during the time that Galatians was written, it was still being practiced as a religious rite among the Hebrews. It was an area of contention during early Christianity because Gentiles were not circumcised, and therefore seen as unworthy in the eyes of their Hebrew brothers. Paul clarifies in this scripture that circumcision means nothing when it comes to following Christ. It is our faith, coupled with acts of love, that makes us worthy–not some ritual which has nothing to do with our heart. Paul makes it clear in this passage that faith is the only thing that matters to Christ.
Lord, Sometimes I get caught up in the ritual of things. I know that I am guilty of trying to do all the right things the right way. I sometimes judge others harshly because they don’t pray the way that I pray or read their bible as often as I think they should or attend all the services that I do. Help me to stop judging people based on things that just don’t matter to You. Help me to see a person’s heart. Help me to exercise faith coupled with love so that I may be what You want me to be. Amen.
When we see wicked people entering troubling times we should not fear – and neither should we gloat. We should simply take comfort in God, knowing that all will be well and that the fate of the wicked is not the fate we, God’s children, will face.
Dear God, I thank you that I can have total comfort in you. Lord, in times where the wicked are experiencing storms and trouble, may my heart be still. I know that the fate of the wicked is not a fate I will face. I also pray that in these times, may they be compelled to repent of their wicked ways. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.
“Social Justice Jesus” has always existed. Faithful followers of Christ have always seen their Lord as a defender of the weak and oppressed—the helper of those in need of help. Likewise, the true followers of Christ have always responded to their Lord’s call to duty to address disparities and injustice wherever they find them. For these faithful servants, social actions are not seen as works of salvation but as fulfillments of the tenets of the kingdom of heaven. The pursuit of equity and justice are not only actions requested within the teachings of our Lord, they are duties assigned by our King. As such, they do become part of one’s salvation, because failure to be socially responsible and active—to love one’s neighbor and even one’s enemy—is grounds for denied entrance into the kingdom of heaven. Nowhere is this more evident than in Jesus’ epic sermon, the “Sermon on the Mount.” Unfortunately, much of modern Christendom believes that this sermon is a remnant of an old covenant and that these epic words of Jesus no longer apply to us. Nothing could be further from the truth, and believing this erroneous deception has been spiritually lethal—both individually and corporately. What a tragedy! What terrible confusion this has produced within Christianity, and what a loss of opportunity for the Christian church! This is why I have written “Social Justice Jesus.” Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, as recorded in the Gospels, is a manifesto of the kingdom of heaven. It is a guide to how the followers of Christ are to live their lives. Within this sermon, Jesus indicates multiple times that his words—his instructions to his followers—remain valid far into the future, and that they are the pathway to current blessings and eternal life. Following them is faith in Jesus. Christians need to correctly understand this. Jesus’ words shape the proper influence and impact that Christianity is to have on earth. Their implementation brings the peace of heaven to earth—a major objective of the kingdom of God. Failing to implement his words would be a form of taking God’s name in vain—claiming to be a child of God but living as if one were free of the duties God desires us to perform. Calling oneself a Christian but failing to follow Jesus’ words is a misrepresentation of Jesus’ mission on earth, the nature of the kingdom of heaven, and God’s character. Many Christians have always intuitively understood their role as followers of Christ and have been active in the duties he has assigned. The words of their king are not taken lightly. The Sermon on the Mount greatly influences their lives. I know, because it has greatly influenced me. It has helped me see the value of every human life and has encouraged me to be active in service to others. It helped direct the course of my academic studies. It took me to Africa for seven years, where I helped meet the needs of war-displaced refugees and thirsty nomads. Jesus’ sermon has been the material of many of my Bible study classes and the topic of multiple sermons of my own. Jesus’ epic sermon is not a relic of the past. Correctly understood, it is a guide to Christian living. And the life he is directing us to live is exciting! This is what I want to share with you. For well over two decades, I have been studying Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, collecting thoughts, jotting down notes, thinking, and rethinking its applications, and trying to see how each theme connects to the previous topic. When I began, I had preconceived ideas of what Jesus was trying to say, but I wanted to dig deeper into every word. Jesus gave us a clue that his sermon was the fulfillment of God’s Law and Prophets. This means that his words are built upon past teachings. So, I took key words from within his sermon and tracked their usage in the Old Testament. For example: what is the meaning of someone who is “pure in heart”? Who are they? What do they believe? How do they live? Initially, I believed I knew the answers to these questions, but as I dug deeper into the Word of God, the revelations that I discovered took me in a direction I did not originally expect, and Social Justice Jesus began to take shape. These new discoveries profoundly called into question my own commitment to Christ. Was I really following him? Does he expect more from me than I have been giving? And if so, how do I put into action his request? My journey into God’s word was a revelation to me, and I anticipate that what I am about to share will be a revelation to you as well. On December 31, 2019, I made a New Year’s resolution to put my research and knowledge to paper in the form of a book. I have written other books of a technical nature; they were tedious but not difficult to compile. I anticipated, however, that this book would be do they live? Initially, I believed I knew the answers to these questions, but as I dug deeper into the Word of God, the revelations that I discovered took me in a direction I did not originally expect, and Social Justice Jesus began to take shape. These new discoveries profoundly called into question my own commitment to Christ. Was I really following him? Does he expect more from me than I have been giving? And if so, how do I put into action his request? My journey into God’s word was a revelation to me, and I anticipate that what I am about to share will be a revelation to you as well. On December 31, 2019, I made a New Year’s resolution to put my research and knowledge to paper in the form of a book. I have written other books of a technical nature; they were tedious but not difficult to compile. I anticipated, however, that this book would be harder to complete. It would require more effort to organize and convey my knowledge and insights, and would be controversial to many Christians, but I felt I had to do it. I work full-time, so on weekends and evenings, when I had the time and strength, I attempted to write. Early on, it was slow going. Writing requires large chunks of time and mental energy, where one wrestles to analyze thoughts, and tries to conceive the best way to communicate ideas. By mid-March I had only completed two chapters, and I realized that fulfilling my New Year’s resolution was going to take an exceedingly long time. Then suddenly and unexpectedly, the world was hit with a new coronavirus. My employer deemed me nonessential and sent me home for weeks. The government told me to stay home and shelter-in-place. By a strange turn of tragic events, I suddenly had time on my hands. I knew what God wanted me to do, and I felt an urgency to complete the task. So, I began to write, and this book began to take shape in ways that have surprised even me. Then, amid this world tragedy, multiple social injustices became public, and people around the globe began to cry out for justice with a fervor that has seldom been acknowledged in recent generations. Their cries should be heard and evaluated. Injustices need to be corrected. There is, however, a danger that the pendulum will be swung to its opposite extreme, and one set of injustices will be substituted with another set. What needs to occur is a stopping of the pendulum altogether. Society needs to see all humanity as the creation of God, and it must value every life. Without justice for all, injustice will always exist. True justice, however, requires a true standard, and we have a standard presented to us in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Social justice and equity are dominant themes within the message of Jesus as found in the Sermon on the Mount. However, Jesus teaches that justice and mercy go hand in hand; correcting society’s failures requires action, but it also requires forgiveness. This is a message that many do not want to hear, but for Christians it is the Word of our King. Throughout my studies over the years, and while writing this book, I have often lamented the fact that if we Christians had taken Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount literally, we would have had nearly two thousand years of leading the cause of social justice and equity, peace and love, to all the world. Where would the world be today if Christians, past and present, fully understood Jesus’ words and diligently applied them? The world’s social and equity disparities may have already been corrected by the actions of Christ’s followers. The unrest we see today may never have been. Only the God of heaven knows for sure. What I know is that the Sermon on the Mount is an indispensable part of Jesus’ gospel—it is God’s word—and it too is to be preached to all the world. It is my hope that as you read this book, you will see clearly what Jesus was trying to communicate to us that day on the mountainside. It is my hope that you will be surprised and convinced by what Jesus still has to say to us today. It is my hope that you will see its universal and eternal application. And finally, it is my hope that you will accept the themes of his message and become a devoted follower; putting his words into ction and helping to build his kingdom of heaven here on earth.
I had accepted a volunteer position to help participate in famine relief efforts in one of Africa’s poorest nations. It was something I had longed to do for many years, and now, God had granted me the opportunity to serve him through service to others. Since I was a child, I intuitively knew that being a Christian required that we do what we can to help others in need. This is one of Christ’s predominant messages throughout the Gospels. It is the message in the parable of the sheep and the goats, and the main theme of Jesus’ epic Sermon on the Mount. It was this desire to be of service that led me to study theology, which eventually morphed into a degree in international development. I had envisioned myself working as an agricultural developer in Central or South America. Instead, after graduation, I landed a job at an agricultural research facility in Barstow. It was the perfect place to prepare for where God was about to send me, though I did not know it at the time. It was early August when I received a surprise phone call from a Christian international relief organization that had previously rejected my request for employment. Africa was in trouble; a severe famine had reached a crisis point, and the world was responding by sending food. The relief organization needed coordinators in place, and they needed them fast. Would I be interested in participating as a volunteer for three months? I was! So, It was a leap of faith, but I knew this was the Lord’s work, and I was willing to give it a try.
Now, I am working on a fundraiser to help build human trafficking safe houses in America. I could only hope and pray to God that he would be with me and guide me for the next three months. Little did I know that this poor, war-torn nation, plagued with social injustices and racial and religious. misunderstandings, was going to be my home for the next seven years. In today’s world, the pursuit of equity within all sectors of society is known as “social justice.” Social justice has many definitions, and its application means different things to different groups, but essentially it is the philosophical theory which asserts that there are dimensions of fairness—justice—that go beyond those embodied in the principles of civil or criminal law, which themselves can be unjust. It looks to correct disparities that are perceived to exist in the communal distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges. It seeks to treat all people with equality, fairness, and dignity. Social justice advocates can be viewed as heroes or terrorists, depending on their actions, underwith social injustices and racial and religious misunderstandings, was going to be my home for the next seven years. In today’s world, the pursuit of equity within all sectors of society is known as “social justice.”
Lying motives, and who they represent or who feels championed or threatened by them. Our whole world is divided by many political ideologies, races, cultures, and spiritual paradigms, and anyone who advocates a change to someone’s norm is open to suspicion and initial resistance. And rightly so. A change advocated by one, can be the violation of another’s sacred beliefs—a violation of their moral standards and taboos. Take, for example, the fight for marriage between same-sex couples, or the right for the terminally ill to end their lives. While some calls for justice will remain hotbeds of controversy, other battles for “justice” are eventually accepted and no longer questioned—like the right for women to vote. This book is written primarily for a Christian audience, so certain assumptions are made regarding the mindset of my readers. How However, the teachings of Jesus hold value to anyone, Christian or non-Christian, and what I have to present should be of interest to those who wish to study how Jesus interpreted the Mosaic Laws, and how he applied them to the social deficiencies of his time and to ours. There are limits, however, to how far Christians can use Jesus’ message. The gospel messages, for example, cannot be used to extrapolate a position on the legalization of cannabis, or to gain insight on whether an electric car is good or bad for the environment. There are some things we must figure out on our own. “Social justice”, as referred to in this book, will be presented within the context of Jesus’ time and culture, and to how he advocated for a greater compliance with God’s fairness toward all sectors of his society. Jesus saw the law of God being incorrectly folfollowed, and part of his ministry was to correct its misapplications. Jesus preached social justice, but he preached it within the context of his time and the laws of Moses that governed his community. Does this mean that Jesus’ teachings are irrelevant to our present age? No, far from it! His teachings address social issues that are still plaguing us today, and his wisdom gives us valid solutions to these problems. So, the social justice teachings of Jesus are timeless and still relevant to anyone who wishes to be a part of his kingdom of heaven. This book will focus on the teachings of Jesus as found in the Sermon on the Mount. Early in my Christian walk, I rarely considered Jesus to be the consummate social justice leader, but his equity themes became more and more apparent as my studies into this epic sermon deepened. They took me in directions that made it impossible for me to ignore Jesus’ repeated social justice themes. The context of his sermon is a revelation of the nature of a kingdom of heaven forming in his time—not just a future kingdom. It is a kingdom to be put into action, now, by those who hear him. Kingdoms have manifestos—policies and principles to be followed. These are formed for the good of their communities. The Sermon on the Mount is a manifesto outlining Jesus’ revelation of God’s law in action. Social justice and social equity are major themes of that law, given for the good of all who live on this earth. Much has been written about Jesus’ epic Sermon on the Mount as recorded in the Gospels. It is a sermon that has fascinated me since I was a child, partly because, unlike other parts of the Bible that I have found difficult to understand, this sermon was understandable. Its concepts seemed straight-forward, and I could see the logic of applying its principles to my everyday life. However, as a child, I did fail to comprehend the broader applications of Jesus’ message. I did not fully understand the context of the sermon or see how Jesus’ words were often a rebuttal to the teachings of his day. I missed the way in which this sermon reframed the Old Testament Law and the Prophets in easy-to-understand terms. I missed that Jesus essentially declares himself to be the “prophet” promised by Moses in Deuteronomy 18:15–19. I missed that he puts his words, uttered that day, on par with the Law and the Prophets, and declares that his words, if obeyed, lead to safety and eternal life. As a child, I also missed the fact that this sermon is about what Jesus calls the “weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith,”1 which Jesus says are not to be neglected. However, as I grew older and studied this sermon in depth, I began to see that its message is indeed the law of God, and its focus is the weightier matters of the law—justice, mercy, and faith. It is a message calling for social justice and “equity,” a word often used to define “righteousness.” It is a message that calls disciples to take equitable actions, now, to begin the kingdom of heaven in their lives, for the benefit of themselves and for all who live on this earth. It is a message that has a cost to those who practice it, but calls for its disciples to have faith that God the Father will provide for their needs as they pay the price of implementing this kingdom in their lives. Surprised? Yes, you should be surprised if no one has told you this before! It is sad that what is probably the most straight-forward aspect of Jesus’ message is the one most often miscomprehended or ignored. Perhaps this is because our religious leaders over-spiritualize Jesus’ teachings. For example, pastors often take the beatitudes and frame them in terms of future benefits to members of God’s kingdom. In so doing, they miss the immediate calls to action and the current benefits that Jesus is presenting to those who act now. And these benefits are not for followers only; they are for the blessing of all humanity. Perhaps today’s “faith alone” Christians find the works-oriented themes of the Sermon on the Mount too divergent from their mainstream Christian paradigms. Maybe the face value of Jesus’ message is considered too radical or impossible to follow.
Rest assured, this sermon was radical even in Jesus’ day. Shortly into his equity message, Jesus has to detour and address his listener’s concerns that what he is saying may be a violation of the Law and the Prophets, as it has been taught to them. Nearly one-third of this sermon is devoted to correcting the misguided instructions that the people have received from their religious leaders. Could it be that we also need similar correction today? Later, Jesus must balance his equity themes with encouragements that living a life of equity is not as hard as listeners might expect. And finally, Matthew’s Gospel records that at the conclusion of Jesus’ teaching, the people were “astonished” by what they had heard and the way in which Jesus presented his message.2 Let me show you what Jesus teaches, and I believe you will be astonished too. The logic and structure of his social justice and equity message will become remarkably clear. His message is brilliant. If taken literally and acted upon by the whole of our Christian community, Christianity would become a far greater force for good in this world. We would be a government that transcends those of the nations of earth, filling in the needs of humanity where earthly governments fall short. We would be the kingdom of heaven on earth as Jesus intended us to be. The word “intended” is the key point here. The kingdom of heaven works through human agents, and it needs knowledgeable and committed followers working its tenets for the good of humanity. In this article, I will start with some background information concerning the kingdom of heaven and its expected arrival.
This will set the atmosphere within which the people heard the message of Christ. It is important contextual information and will give us vital clues for understanding the themes Jesus will be addressing. Next, we will take an in-depth look at every verse of the Sermon on the Mount. This is not as dry as it might sound. Looking at each verse, comparing it to other parts of the Bible and tracing key words back into the Old Testament, unlocks new insights and revelations—wondrous concepts that are rarely shared in weekend sermons or Sunday School lessons. These new revelations will leave you shaking your head in amazement. I am positive you will have this experience multiple times. The process of this study will be straight-forward as we progress through this sermon from beginning to end. Each new topic or theme will be treated as a separate chapter. Longer chapters will have divisions so you can take breaks in thought and later return to the book as your schedule permits. I do not expect you to read this book in one night. There is too much illuminating information to expose yourself to all at once. Feel free to pace yourself as you like. As you read this book, you will frequently see the use of the word “equity.” This term has often caused confusion for some readers and is mistakenly thought to mean equality or having a financial stake in some sort of property. “Equity” is more than this, and this book draws on one of the word’s alternate means and signifies a quality of being fair or impartial in one’s personal conduct with others. But it is also more than this. The Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek words from which the Bible derives the English words for right, righteous and righteousness, are often defined using the word “equity.” And the biblical definitions of these three words are matched with the equivalent words of lawful, beneficence, and equitable deeds.3 These latter concepts of doing right, following the law of God, being charitable, fair, and just, on a personal level, are what best define my use of the word “equity.” So, is our Lord and Savior a social justice warrior? After comprehending the Sermon on the Mount, it will become clear that social justice is a tenet that has its origins in heaven. Its principles were set in stone by God and existed before the foundation of the world. However, the disciples of God’s true social justice are not the same as the militant actors that we see in many of today’s secular warriors. Like Jesus, ChrisChristian warriors will seek change and fulfillment of God’s law by way of the same meekness and forgiveness displayed by their king. Like Jesus, they will not only advocate for change, but they themselves will be the solution that is needed. There is a sad note, however. The unfortunate truth may be that the social justice turmoil of our day has arisen due to Christians failing to be the social justice leaders for which Jesus had advocated. The gospel message is about Christ’s death and his forgiveness of our sins. It is also about his resurrection and victory over death, and his ability to grant us eternal life. But as you will soon see, the gospel message is also about the promotion of social justice and equity. All these elements are to be preached to all the world before the end comes. We have been strong in promoting Christ’s grace, but too often deficient in participating in his calls for social responsibility. The participation in the promotion of justice and equity are part of our great commission as faithful Christians. If Christians fail to preach this aspect of the gospel message, we could be in danger of being passed by, as God gives this message to others—to children, or even to the stones to cry out.4 Perhaps this is where we are in history today. As Christians, it is imperative that we understand the full gospel message, and apply every aspect of it to our lives. By Jesus’ own words, it is a matter of life or death. So, I invite you to take a journey with me now, and take a closer look at a literal view of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Look at the information and determine for yourself how Jesus wants the followers of the kingdom of heaven to live. You will be surprised! You will be changed!
Please enjoy this reading. Blessed are those who read and study the Living Word of God, in Jesus name Amen
It’s Wednesday! Friday Fictioneers is here! And would you looky here… Rochelle is using our little trouble-maker, Omelette, for the prompt. Sorry she is blurry. It was one of those “quick before she jumps” situations. Can’t very well diss my own pic now, can I? How about you click on the frogs below to check […]
When we understand that the Bible is the final authority for our faith, it eliminates any confusion when it comes to issues in life. As soon as we accept the Bible as God’s Word, we then have the basis for guidance and direction. Following its precepts brings us into spiritual maturity and we’re able to live a life pleasing to God. So when we get off course, God’s Word corrects us, instructs us, and guides us back on track. This wisdom from above equips us to face any crisis and enables us to help others who may be going through difficult situations. In our beloved Pastor Chuck’s life, three qualities were evident—His love for God, His love for the Word of God, and His love for people. Though he has gone on to receive His eternal heavenly reward, thankfully he has left us with a legacy of studying God’s Word chapter by chapter, verse by verse. He once said, “When we step out in faith, we have the Word of God to step out upon.” Life apart from God is empty, but a life surrendered to God in obedience to His Word is rich and full. May the Lord strengthen you with His Word that you might walk in the light of His countenance and in the understanding of His ways as you keep His law and His precepts. “When you need guidance, when man’s counsel has left you confused and discouraged, go to the Word of God because God has already given you His counsel. May you hide His Word in your heart that you may not sin against Him. May you submit to the commandments of the Lord, walking in His ways, being led by His Spirit, and seeking in all things to live a life that is pleasing and acceptable unto Him.” -Pastor Chuck
Universalist Unitarian Church Rev. Tom Capo is a member of a coalition of clergy who sued to block Florida’s abortion ban in August.
Missouri’s abortion ban completely outlaws abortion with limited exceptions.
The text of the law declares that “Almighty God is the author of life.”
Thirteen leaders from different faiths say separation of church and state is being violated.
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Thirteen faith leaders from various denominations are suing the state of Missouri over an abortion ban that completely outlaws abortion with limited exceptions — based on the premise that “Almighty God is the author of life.”
The clergy, who come from denominations of Christianity, Unitarian Universalism, and Judaism, said the abortion ban violates their religious freedom and subjects them to “the religious dictates of others.”
“In a years-long crusade against abortion access, state officials have weaponized their religious beliefs to control the bodies and deny the autonomy of women and all who can become pregnant, jeopardizing their health, lives, and futures,” the lawsuit says. “Many people of faith support abortion access not despite, but because of, their religion.”
There’s a long history of religious support for abortion rights, according to a 2022 report by The Law, Rights, and Religion Project. Some traditions, including the Presbyterian Church, Reform and Conservative Judaism, and the United Church of Christ, explicitly support the right to an abortion.
“The idea of a religious liberty right to reproductive autonomy is not something that came from lawyers,” said Elizabeth Reiner Platt, director of Columbia Law School’s Law, Rights, and Religion Project. “It came from religious leaders and communities, who have been explaining for decades that they see reproductive freedom as essential to religious freedom.”
It’s unusual for explicitly religious language to be in the text of a statute, but legislators often invoke religious language when they debate and draft new laws, according to Platt.
More than a dozen states passed abortion bans in the days and weeks following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade last summer. Missouri was one of the states that planned ahead. Under the state’s “trigger law,” passed in 2019, abortion became illegal as soon as the court made its ruling.
But Missouri lawmakers openly discussed their religious beliefs on abortion while writing the abortion ban in 2019 according to the lawsuit, saying things like “Life begins at conception. Psalms 119 says …,” and “God doesn’t give us a choice in this area. He is the Creator of life.”
There have also been more than a dozen cases challenging abortion restrictions on religious freedom grounds since the Supreme Court’s decision, according to Platt.
A Florida Jewish congregation, a group of Florida multifaith leaders, Methodist ministers in Texas, and Jewish and Muslim claimants in Indiana, among others, have all brought similar claims.
Some have had initial success, “including injunctions in Utah and Wyoming based in part on religion arguments, as well as more detailed early rulings in Kentucky and Indiana finding that banning abortion violates religious freedom,” Platt told Insider. But there have been no final court victories or losses.
Historically, though, few courts have directly said there is a religious liberty right to abortion care.
In a statement posted to Twitter, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who is named in the lawsuit, said he would “defend the right to life with every tool at my disposal.”
“In Harris v. McRae, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected arguments like those raised in this case, and the Missouri Attorney General’s Office has won on similar claims at the Missouri Supreme Court,” Bailey wrote, citing a Supreme Court case in which the court rejected an argument that an abortion restriction violated the establishment clause. “We look forward to doing it again. I will never back down from this fight.”
Human Trafficking Survivor; God and Country, Without God There is No Country/ Judeo-Christian / America Belongs to God 