upon the ruins of Jerusalem's walls...discouragement is not of God's people

Before I begin my blog today, I just wanted to post a call to prayer from George from Worthy News Ministries that he put on the bottom of his devotional today: In times such as these, we need to focus more and more on Yeshua haMashiach (Jesus the Messiah) and call upon our Father’s mercy and grace in the days ahead………

Friends, this is a warning to all of us -- it is time to PRAY!!!

We have entered into the time period on the Hebraic calendar between Rosh HaShana (Head of the Year) and Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), which is known as the Days of Awe. It dawned on me this morning that perhaps this year will give new meaning to the term. I'm not sure if you realize it but this week's events have the potential of changing the course of history as we know it. As believers, we need to be united in prayer more than ever before.

Thursday: Obama will become the first American president to chair its 15-member Security Council. He is expected to push a UN nonproliferation resolution which is designed to bring all nations into a binding agreement. In the resolution it calls for the right of all states to pursue peaceful nuclear energy -- including Iran. It also calls for all states to sign Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) agreement. This is key because Israel is one of four nations that still has not signed the agreement and understandably so, since the UN is so biased against the Jewish state. (Personal note: it is interesting that Obama would push this stance with the speeches given by Iran’s and Libya’s leaders that accuse the world’s nations of handling them as second-rate nations. Iran still continues to claim a non-military use for the military grade uranium that it is making….)

Friday: A G-20 economic summit representing 85% of the world's economy will be led by President Obama in Pittsburgh. Meanwhile, in Washington D.C. Muslims will be gathering for their first ever "prayer meeting" where there are expected to be up to 50,000 to be in attendance.
Please keep these points in prayer this week and don't forget to keep us in your prayers here in Israel as well.
Your family in the Lord with much agape love,

George, Rivka, Elianna & Obadiah
Currently in the Negev Desert, Israel

Last night I had a prompting of the Spirit to go to church….a surprising development given my recent church history and the struggle I am having with risking myself in another fellowship, though I have met and worshipped with a range of styles since moving back to Canton from Holly. From the comfortable to the new……each has its own disappointments and encouragements, style and worship but each has a biblically sound teaching platform.

A friend on Facebook, the pastor of Thrive Church in Texas, mentioned that in conversations with other families in similar stages of searching for a home church that one phrase kept cropping up….and it perfectly describes my heartfelt desire for the next home God leads us to in this season of the journey: Life-giving.

Neither Mosaic A2 (the new church plant in Ann Arbor) or Life Church in Canton had Wednesday night programs when I checked their websites; Life was going to the North Pointe church, my friend Chris Birtles’ church that I will attend on Saturday (I have experience with NP, and the River of Faith was under the campus leadership of one of NP’s brothers), on some ‘ultra-church’ field trip for some of the youth, but there was nothing else.

Only Berean Bible Church, my friend Tim’s church, had Wednesday night programs: Awana for the two fifth graders and a middle school program called Thrive for the other two…..and a bible study for the men.

With the kids settled into their respective programs, I was directed to the men’s bible study group….They were doing a study on a book written by Dr. David Jeremiah on the book of Nehemiah. The topic for last week was fear……this week, it was discouragement.

God, indeed, in His wisdom and provision knew exactly what I needed to be reminded of and how to send me in the direction of where it would be spoken.

Nehemiah is told by Hanani, one of his brothers, who came from Judah that “those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.”
Nehemiah was distressed about the condition of his people and his capital city…..and fasted praying to God about this burdening sorrow:

“"O LORD, God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and obey his commands, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father's house, have committed against you. We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses. Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, 'If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, but if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name.' "They are your servants and your people, whom you redeemed by your great strength and your mighty hand. O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man." I was cupbearer to the king.” Nehemiah 1:5-11 (NIV)

Nehemiah was an employee of King Artaxerxes, and was held in good regard apparently as we can tell by the King’s reaction when Nehemiah sees him after this tragic news; a) that he would notice his servant’s unhappiness and sorrow, b) He would ask why instead of exercising the option to kill him because he was unhappy near the King and c) He would not only give permission but provision and equip Nehemiah to rebuild Jerusalem’s walls. As Nehemiah departed, he recognized God’s hand in even a pagan’s heart to affect the work that He had burdened His servant for.

God has shown me time and time again that He will provision in amazing and logic-defying ways His servants for the work He’s enticed them to join with Him in.

Nehemiah organizes and sets forth to undertake the rebuilding of the capital city’s walls……He gives an accounting of who did what in Chapter 3. Such work wasn’t embraced by all of the pagan people in the area….most ridiculed the Jewish people…..Sanballat the Horonite, in front of his associates and the army of Samaria, was incensed and angry saying…”What are those feeble Jews doing? Will they restore their wall? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a day? Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble—burned as they are?" Tobiah the Ammonite joked even more, “What they are building—if even a fox climbed up on it, he would break down their wall of stones!"

And even as the work progressed, nearing completion, it raised even more dissention among the pagan enemies of Israel…..Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the men of Ashdod began plotting against Jerusalem and its people.

God has brought it about as I progress under the teaching and instruction of the Holy Spirit opposition and ridicule from those opposed or not in sync with God’s word or purpose and have come against me as I push against the ‘corporate mentality’ of the postmodern church………..

Dr. Jeremiah points out four temptations that are usually the precursor to the sin of discouragement……

1) Fatigue, mental and/or physical.

2) Frustration.

Nehemiah 4:10-11 The people of Judah…faced with opposition from the pagan nations surrounding them as they rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem cry out, “The strength of the laborers is giving out, and there is so much rubble that we cannot rebuild the wall. Also our enemies said, ‘Before they know it or see us, we will be right there among them and will kill them and put an end to the work.”

These first two can usually go hand-in-hand, one on top of the other….as you get frustrated, you get tired or as you get tired, you get frustrated. The builders were facing the ridicule of enemy nations and turned to the pile of rubble before them, lamenting that no apparent progress had been made….and time was running out in their opinion before an enemy would attack them.

3) Failure (fear or attitude of failure)

Also in v10 above, the Israelites show the fear of failure, that they aren’t going to be able to build fast enough to thwart the enemy………

4) Fear

Nehemiah 4:11-12. “Also our enemies said, "Before they know it or see us, we will be right there among them and will kill them and put an end to the work." Then the Jews who lived near them came and told us ten times over, "Wherever you turn, they will attack us."”

They didn’t know when the enemy would attack and knew that when it came, they would be overwhelmed with no protective walls…..

Discouragement is the antithesis of what God built us to be and what the rebirth of salvation delivers into our hearts as we continue the journey towards the gates of the New Jerusalem……and the battle grows more intense, the enemy seems to have superior forces arrayed against the children of God.

We elect politicians who mouth godly intentions while their actions draw us further and further away from God’s plan…..we speak the truth, that Christ is the only way to salvation and are twisted into a corner with the new definition of tolerance…..more and more faithful are falling to false doctrines, couched with enough gospel verses to sway the shallow believer and beset the more mature, we label them good under the banner of ‘love’ and condemn those who are led astray……more and more third world countries are under the battle of fatigue, hungry and persecution with more and more believers imprisoned, tortured and killed for the refusal to turn from the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob…….future generations will never breath air because of the increased support of the secular world of abortion and the legislative laws bring us to a ‘master race’ mentality of who is allowed to breath air and who must die, be controlled and prevented from giving birth and more discriminatory, punishing legislation being passed to restrict Christianity……the economy is floundering and the governmental answer is to indebt the future generations…..

We are in discouraging times and the division between the pilgrims of this world and its permanent inhabitants grows daily in ways that years ago we would have scoffed at the possibilities……as we look at the rubble of what was once our protection in the secular world…once so bold and strong in the lives of the people…now lying tumbled and burn upon the ground, we are turning more and more away from the God of our faith and depending upon the workings of man and the ‘religious’ leadership that proclaims a stunted gospel….love everyone and we’ll all get to heaven in our own ways, don’t be offensive and above all, don’t speak absolute truth….define what truth is for you and allow that to be your guide.

Is it any wonder why more and more Christians are falling into apostasy? We believe in strength in numbers and gather ourselves into mega-churches we run like businesses…afraid of not making our ‘budgets’ and looking for spectacular and inviting ways to draw more ‘tithe’ givers of financial strength into our pews. We look less and less to healing those who are wounded, discipling those who are looking, and empowering those who have become apostles into commissioning others into the faith.

And we say, “Look, it’s obviously working…..the money is fine and the service is drawing more and more into our doors! We had to add “ADDITIONAL” services!!!!!”

The remnant is becoming disillusioned by the remaining rubble that lies around the modern church and is giving in to discouragement as the enemies of God’s plan threaten persecution and destruction…….there is just too much to do, there’s just too few to do it, and the enemy is making progress despite our best efforts!!

We all need to step into the story of Nehemiah and look to his example of how ‘sold-out-to-God’ people fight against discouragement. As Dr. Jeremiah points out, there are five God-given weapons to combat the enemy’s plan against the plan God has burdened His people with:

1) Cry out to God.
2) Continue to do the work God has called us to do.
3) Concentrate on the ‘big picture.’
4) Claim the encouragement provided in the promises God has given.
5) Carry the burdens of others as they carry your burdens….don’t carry your own.

”Hear us, O our God, for we are despised. Turn their insults back on their own heads. Give them over as plunder in a land of captivity. Do not cover up their guilt or blot out their sins from your sight, for they have thrown insults in the face of the builders.” Nehemiah 4:4-5 (NIV). Nehemiah doesn’t complain about the insults against him or the people but against God’s plan….giving it to God to handle in His way.

Even as the enemies grumbled and threatened, Nehemiah and his countrymen continued to follow God’s plan full-heartedly, building 25,000 yards (25 football fields) worth of wall half of its original height. Nehemiah 4:6.

He expected and prepared his people for the attacks against the people, rallying them with the encouragements that God had promised His children and walked as he talked, giving all he had in dedication to the call God had placed upon him….

“"Don't be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes." When our enemies heard that we were aware of their plot and that God had frustrated it, we all returned to the wall, each to his own work. From that day on, half of my men did the work, while the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bows and armor. The officers posted themselves behind all the people of Judah who were building the wall. Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other, and each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked. But the man who sounded the trumpet stayed with me. Then I said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, "The work is extensive and spread out, and we are widely separated from each other along the wall. Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, join us there. Our God will fight for us!" So we continued the work with half the men holding spears, from the first light of dawn till the stars came out. At that time I also said to the people, "Have every man and his helper stay inside Jerusalem at night, so they can serve us as guards by night and workmen by day." Neither I nor my brothers nor my men nor the guards with me took off our clothes; each had his weapon, even when he went for water.” Nehemiah 4:14b-23 (NIV)

When he would be discouraged, when he would be burdened by the task, Nehemiah did not isolate himself and take his portion..wishing for more. He bore the burdens of his people, making their burdened problems and situations his own. He led, again, as he spoke…giving his full focus and effort to the purpose God had set him to. He reinforces the vision with his dedication…inspiring the people through carrying their burdens and affecting change as he was given the authority to do. But he went further, sacrificing his own for the sake of his people:

“Now the men and their wives raised a great outcry against their Jewish brothers. Some were saying, "We and our sons and daughters are numerous; in order for us to eat and stay alive, we must get grain." Others were saying, "We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards and our homes to get grain during the famine." Still others were saying, "We have had to borrow money to pay the king's tax on our fields and vineyards. Although we are of the same flesh and blood as our countrymen and though our sons are as good as theirs, yet we have to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. Some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but we are powerless, because our fields and our vineyards belong to others." When I heard their outcry and these charges, I was very angry. I pondered them in my mind and then accused the nobles and officials. I told them, "You are exacting usury from your own countrymen!" So I called together a large meeting to deal with them and said: "As far as possible, we have bought back our Jewish brothers who were sold to the Gentiles. Now you are selling your brothers, only for them to be sold back to us!" They kept quiet, because they could find nothing to say. So I continued, "What you are doing is not right. Shouldn't you walk in the fear of our God to avoid the reproach of our Gentile enemies? I and my brothers and my men are also lending the people money and grain. But let the exacting of usury stop! Give back to them immediately their fields, vineyards, olive groves and houses, and also the usury you are charging them—the hundredth part of the money, grain, new wine and oil." "We will give it back," they said. "And we will not demand anything more from them. We will do as you say." Then I summoned the priests and made the nobles and officials take an oath to do what they had promised. I also shook out the folds of my robe and said, "In this way may God shake out of his house and possessions every man who does not keep this promise. So may such a man be shaken out and emptied!" At this the whole assembly said, "Amen," and praised the LORD. And the people did as they had promised. Moreover, from the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, until his thirty-second year—twelve years—neither I nor my brothers ate the food allotted to the governor. But the earlier governors—those preceding me—placed a heavy burden on the people and took forty shekels of silver from them in addition to food and wine. Their assistants also lorded it over the people. But out of reverence for God I did not act like that. Instead, I devoted myself to the work on this wall. All my men were assembled there for the work; we did not acquire any land. Furthermore, a hundred and fifty Jews and officials ate at my table, as well as those who came to us from the surrounding nations. Each day one ox, six choice sheep and some poultry were prepared for me, and every ten days an abundant supply of wine of all kinds. In spite of all this, I never demanded the food allotted to the governor, because the demands were heavy on these people.” Nehemiah 5:1-18 (NIV)

As Nehemiah progressed in the purpose to which God had set his heart to, he was more and more wary of the attack of the enemy…..Shemaiah tried to make Nehemiah give up because of intimidation….telling Nehemiah “Let us meet in the house of God, inside the temple, and let us close the temple doors, because men are coming to kill you----by night they are coming to kill you.” (Nehemiah 6:5 NIV). Shemaiah had been hired by Tobiah and Sanballat to create a bad name for Nehemiah and discredit his words of encouragement…..

How often do we, in the body, do the same thing…..we follow those leaders who whisper that we are being intolerant, unloving, and offensive by speaking the truth….the rhetoric is toned down, hell isn’t mention and the wages of sin…well, let’s just talk about the loving side of God rather than His wrath. We must water down the truth so that we can get the people in the doors…..we must not vote our faith but vote our hopes…..we cannot oppose the government in the democratic way but must accept what they deem is best for us……we run to our 'temple' and close the doors, creating the very reputation we've spoken against in times past and creating the image that our encouragement is not to be heeded......

We need to be like Nehemiah....

Nehemiah saw through the deception and uttered words we should be crying out against the opposition to the Truth, even those in the body who have become fearful and discouraged in the face of the massive rubble of this world:

“"Should a man like me run away? Or should one like me go into the temple to save his life? I will not go!"” Nehemiah 5:11a (NIV).

And in fifty-two days, the walls of Jerusalem were rebuilt…..

What could God do with a body that is not discouraged despite the pile of rubble that has been created from the once-strong walls of the church, dedicated to rebuilding those walls under the threats, insults and intimidations of the enemy and glorifying God by that work He has purposed us all to do.

We can only do it now as the Israelites did in Nehemiah’s time.......Gather together, fasting and wearing sackcloth….confessing our sins and the wickedness of our forefathers in the body…reading from the Word of God and worshipping His mercy, grace and authority in our lives and the work of the church and recalling the promises and provisions of our God to His people, if we will only follow Him:

“"You are the LORD God, who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and named him Abraham. You found his heart faithful to you, and you made a covenant with him to give to his descendants the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Jebusites and Girgashites. You have kept your promise because you are righteous. You saw the suffering of our forefathers in Egypt; you heard their cry at the Red Sea. You sent miraculous signs and wonders against Pharaoh, against all his officials and all the people of his land, for you knew how arrogantly the Egyptians treated them. You made a name for yourself, which remains to this day. You divided the sea before them, so that they passed through it on dry ground, but you hurled their pursuers into the depths, like a stone into mighty waters. By day you led them with a pillar of cloud, and by night with a pillar of fire to give them light on the way they were to take. You came down on Mount Sinai; you spoke to them from heaven. You gave them regulations and laws that are just and right, and decrees and commands that are good. You made known to them your holy Sabbath and gave them commands, decrees and laws through your servant Moses. 15 In their hunger you gave them bread from heaven and in their thirst you brought them water from the rock; you told them to go in and take possession of the land you had sworn with uplifted hand to give them. But they, our forefathers, became arrogant and stiff-necked, and did not obey your commands. They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles you performed among them. They became stiff-necked and in their rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery. But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Therefore you did not desert them, even when they cast for themselves an image of a calf and said, 'This is your god, who brought you up out of Egypt,' or when they committed awful blasphemies. Because of your great compassion you did not abandon them in the desert. By day the pillar of cloud did not cease to guide them on their path, nor the pillar of fire by night to shine on the way they were to take. You gave your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold your manna from their mouths, and you gave them water for their thirst. For forty years you sustained them in the desert; they lacked nothing, their clothes did not wear out nor did their feet become swollen. You gave them kingdoms and nations, allotting to them even the remotest frontiers. They took over the country of Sihon king of Heshbon and the country of Og king of Bashan. You made their sons as numerous as the stars in the sky, and you brought them into the land that you told their fathers to enter and possess. Their sons went in and took possession of the land. You subdued before them the Canaanites, who lived in the land; you handed the Canaanites over to them, along with their kings and the peoples of the land, to deal with them as they pleased. They captured fortified cities and fertile land; they took possession of houses filled with all kinds of good things, wells already dug, vineyards, olive groves and fruit trees in abundance. They ate to the full and were well-nourished; they reveled in your great goodness. But they were disobedient and rebelled against you; they put your law behind their backs. They killed your prophets, who had admonished them in order to turn them back to you; they committed awful blasphemies. So you handed them over to their enemies, who oppressed them. But when they were oppressed they cried out to you. From heaven you heard them, and in your great compassion you gave them deliverers, who rescued them from the hand of their enemies. But as soon as they were at rest, they again did what was evil in your sight. Then you abandoned them to the hand of their enemies so that they ruled over them. And when they cried out to you again, you heard from heaven, and in your compassion you delivered them time after time. You warned them to return to your law, but they became arrogant and disobeyed your commands. They sinned against your ordinances, by which a man will live if he obeys them. Stubbornly they turned their backs on you, became stiff-necked and refused to listen. For many years you were patient with them. By your Spirit you admonished them through your prophets. Yet they paid no attention, so you handed them over to the neighboring peoples. But in your great mercy you did not put an end to them or abandon them, for you are a gracious and merciful God. Now therefore, O our God, the great, mighty and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love, do not let all this hardship seem trifling in your eyes—the hardship that has come upon us, upon our kings and leaders, upon our priests and prophets, upon our fathers and all your people, from the days of the kings of Assyria until today. In all that has happened to us, you have been just; you have acted faithfully, while we did wrong.” Nehemiah 7 (NIV)

4th of July thoughts...going from comfortable to uncomfortable in a world of sinful agendas

“And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds….reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail, in exclusion of religious principle.” George Washington, 1st President of the United States of America.

“Whatever we once were, we are no longer a Christian nation –at least, not just. We are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, and a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers.”President Barrack Obama, 66th President of the United States of America.

“For what great nation has a god so near to them as the Lord our God is, whenever we are turned to him in prayer? And what great nation has laws and decisions so right as all this law which I put before you today? Only take care, and keep watch on your soul, for fear that the things which your eyes have seen go from your memory and from your heart all the days of your life; but let the knowledge of them be given to your children and to your children's children..’ (Deuteronomy 4:7-9 BBE) Moses, Leader of the Israelite people after the Exodus.

It is oft the debate that clouds the issues of abortion, immoral sexual lifestyles and any discussion of the religion of Evolutionary Darwinism, meant to shut down the calls of Homeland Security’s ‘extreme right-wing radicals’ for the revival and return of America to its foundation and its purpose. (Side note: I am, according to DHS Intelligence Assessment of 4/7/09, said ‘extreme right wing’ activist) It is a hot topic, usually found in the arsenal of the secular or cultural religious that form the majority of the ‘83%’ declared-Christians that populate America’s shores, that we were never a Christian nation, never meant to govern by the biblical principles or should expect our national morality to be tied to the commandments set forth by the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The American Dream isn’t what it once was and neither is the nation that envisioned its creation.

The celebration of our national independence from the governance of Great Britain and King George lit up the sky this past Saturday, the booming echoes of explosive charges hammering the ooohs and ahhhhs of the crowds gathered around this land. Mostly done were the barbeques, the games or family gatherings by nightfall so that grand tradition of fireworks could be comfortably viewed, no matter how reduced or less-grand than years previous. A celebratory air seemed to float everywhere, as even those who had to work on a national holiday were caught up in the joyful proclamation of our national birth……and I would venture to guess, scarcely a thought given to what we once were and the dying cries of its once vibrant life.

Our President, the sixty-sixth man to hold that office and title, has it all wrong; we are no longer a Christian nation, period. No ‘at least, not just’ or any carefully worded phrases to give a passing glance to the national heritage of Christianity that has been crowded out by false doctrines, false religions and reintroduced pagan rituals. No longer can the words of our pilgrims and colonists be heard and the remembrance of the blessings received by a young nation by the hand of God due to its foundational dream lay forgotten and twisted in the cavernous ruins of its destruction. The reasons, hopes and dreams of our fore founders no longer excite the national identity. The grand experiment of a republic, guided by the morality and direction of the Judeo-Christian God has fallen prey to the manipulation of man…..and their complacency in its growth. Accordingly to the DHS assessment, holding positions of “the right to bear arms under the 2nd Amendment”, “abortion is morally wrong”, “lower taxes, not higher”, “state and local governance as opposed to federal expansion”, “the bible is literally true” and “veterans deserve honor” are a few of the ‘warning signs’ of radicalism from the right-wing segment of American society.

If you go back in history, this describes the Pilgrims who traveled to America, colonists who formed their governing bodies for the colonies and the colonial minute man who stood against the British distant and enslaving rule. Each of the founding fathers of this republic would be in chains under DHS control if this document was applied to their thoughts, words and deeds that ironically gave birth to the body that created such an entity. No wonder why America has fallen into the practice of rewriting historical facts with distortion and misstated half-truths. America was once a Christian nation, in its infancy…..and has never achieved what it was supposed to be: a nation governed by, seeking after and under the divine guidance of Almighty God through the working hands, minds and hearts of its people and by a federal body that subscribed to principals and created institutional foundations that were biblically based to govern a people with a understood and shared biblical worldview. A Christian nation is not one in which all the people are all Christians, but where the social and governing morality are biblically defined and biblically enforced (i.e. in love, with the intent to restore) for the benefit of all; even Muslim, Buddha and nonbelievers.

"The highest glory of the American Revolution,” said John Quincy Adams, ”was this: it connected in one indissoluble bond, the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity." The grand experiment has failed, because we lay in ignorance of our heritage and the blessings that enabled a ragtag, untrained and outmatched band of ‘patriots’ stand against the mightiest army of the time and win.

We can look at historical documents and derive clear intention from the “July 4th colonists’” forbearers; the Pilgrims. The first known governmental document, the Mayflower Compact, 1620, written on American soil puts pen to paper what those colonists, in the Plymouth colony of what would become Virginia, considered their mission in the New World; “….Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first Colony in the northern Parts of Virginia; Do by these Presents, solemnly and mutually, in the Presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid….” The Compact would be used to fashion other governance documents, like the Exeter Compact, and its meaning echoed in the writings of other colonies….

In the Supreme Court's 1892 Holy Trinity Church v. United States decision Justice David Brewer overturned the decision by circuit court of the United States for the southern district of New York in the matter of the anti-immigration statute (143 U.S. 457, 459]…) that forbid certain vocations from being filled by foreign nationals. Holy Trinity Church had hired an Englishman to be its pastor and the Immigration and Naturalization Service moved to block his installment. In what is now a rarity, the Supreme Court interpreted the law made by Congress by drawing on the background of the law’s creation and implied intention not to include Christian ministers in its scope because of the lengthy review of the ‘mass of organic utterances’ throughout the history of America that established “this is a Christian nation” overturning the circuit court’s decision because it’s decision went against the whole history and life of the country.

In the reversal, we find example after example of Christianity as the national identity intentionally and with clarity: “The commission to Christopher Columbus, prior to his sail westward….the first colonial grant, made to Sir Walter Raleigh in 1584…the first charter of Virginia, granted by King James 1 in 1606…….the language of subsequent charters of that colony in 1609, 1611…..and various charters of other colonies……the celebrated compact by the piligrims of the Mayflower….the fundamental orders of Commecticut 1638-39……the charter of Pennsylvania to William Penn…..the declaration of independence……every constitution of the 44 states [note: this was the number of states in the US at the time] contains…..constitutions of the various states recognize…..the constitution of the United States, which is supposed to have little touch upon the private life of the individual, contains in the first amendment a declaration common to the constitutions of all the states, as follows: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," etc., - and also provides in article 1, § 7, (a provision common to many constitutions,) that the executive shall have 10 days (Sundays excepted) within which to determine whether he will approve or veto a bill constitution of the United States…….”, all that provide there is no disagreement in the historical documentation and intent of the United States because of an ‘universal language pervading them all’ that affirm throughout its history that it is a religious nation.

Justice Brewer called these examples “organic utterances” that speak the voice of the entire people,, using the Pennsylvania decision (Updegraph v. Comm., 11 Seg. & R. 394, 400) to point out “Christianity, general Christianity, is, and always has been, a part of the common law…….not Christianity with an established church and tithes and spiritual courts, but Christianity with liberty of conscience to all men”

In conclusion, Justice Brewer wrote; “If we pass beyond these matters to a view of American life, as expressed by its laws, its business, its customs, and its society, we find everywhere a clear recognition of the same truth. Among other matters note the following: The form of oath universally prevailing, concluding with an appeal to the Almighty; the custom of opening sessions of all deliberative bodies and most conventions with prayer; the prefatory words of all wills, "In the name of God, amen;" the laws respecting the observance of the Sabbath, with the general cessation of all secular business, and the closing of courts, legislatures, and other similar public assemblies on that day; the churches and church organizations which abound in every city, town, and hamlet; the multitude of charitable organizations existing everywhere under Christian auspices; the gigantic missionary associations, with general support, and aiming to establish Christian missions in every quarter of the globe. These and many other matters which might be noticed, add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation.” Likewise in 1931, Supreme Court Justice George Sutherland reversed the 1892 decision in relation to another case and reiterated that Americans are a 'Christian people' and in 1952 Justice William O. Douglas affirmed 'we are a religious people and our institutions presuppose a Supreme Being.'"

“Saying that the U.S. is not "just" a Christian nation carries the sense that it is both a Christian nation and more:” opines Brooks Jackson in an article on FactCheck.org, “a nation of Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and nonbelievers as well. Furthermore, any survey of religious beliefs held by Americans will show that to be a factually correct statement.” A slight twist of meaning and suddenly it doesn’t appear so bad, being ‘not just’ a Christian nation but rather a collection of people with differing moral values. I would offer that a survey of religious beliefs held by Americans proves that this is no longer a Christian nation, though it was once declared to be so and it was once intended to be. It is the distortion of what it means to be a “Christian nation” that has led to its demise.

“The observation could be made because people of all beliefs largely respected the Judeo-Christian system,” Monte Kuligowski points out on AmericanThinker.com, “and accepted it as society's basis for right and wrong and moral order. Indeed, back then, even an atheist would have acknowledged society's religious moral framework as the basis for social order.” Justice Brewer pointed out that his claim reached into the ‘organic law’ of the nation and each state, showing that America being a Christian nation was “the domain of official action and recognition….[not mere] individual acceptance.” (Brewer, The United States: A Christian Nation/1905)

Our 66th President says that our national heritage of ‘faith’ was twisted into a divisional weapon by the "Christian Right": “Somehow, somewhere along the way, faith stopped being used to bring us together and started being used to drive us apart. It got hijacked. Part of it's because of the so-called leaders of the Christian Right, who've been all too eager to exploit what divides us," he said, in an article on WorldNetDaily....and promptly ignores ‘official action, recognition and responsibility’ that supersedes individual acceptance or desire. Far beyond a misstated and untruthful statement of “separation of church and state” which has led to the social separation of faith and governance in the voice of the people, the government should well look into its own formation and hold itself accountable to the utterances of its membership. The moral fabric of the national identity superseded any individual acceptance of its decrees and was the guide for the formation of what was to be a “Nation under God”, in a world where each state was Christian, constitutionally and ‘organically’, the founding fathers envisioned a ‘theocracy’ of democratic accord as the goal of America, which since 1947 we have declared to be otherwise.

In the current decline into the humanistic, postmodern world of self-theology where the Mormonistic preaching of ‘self-evolution’ into godhood seems to be the prevailing whim as the American dream has morphed into one of comfort and ease, such historical facts are reinterpreted and reexamined so that a legislative branch can make laws protecting and promoting an alternate history that denies the un-attaining of the original goal for this nation. Instead of a nation empowered by God, indwelled with the Holy Spirit and given the holy charge to ‘storm the gates of hell itself’ with a promise felt in the individual marrow of its citizens of “surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age”….we have become a mockery for the world to point to as we run full tilt for the things that have been proven worldwide to be the death of nations; socialism, postmodernism and individualism.

History is no longer studied to gain knowledge of the mistakes that lead to the fall of empires, the decline of the societal fabric that binds civilizations together with the cohesiveness to weather trials nor to find a better path for the future. It is simply examined for the simplisticity of altering, denying or misstating the facts to the cultural inhabitators so that an agenda, human in its sinfulness and evil in its bondage, will bring the masses back under Egyptian rule.

“It must be admitted that today, although we are still essentially a Christian nation in form (i.e., the Constitutional, legal structure, church affiliation), we are not one in conduct. For the first 250 years of our existence Christian character determined the conduct of self-government in homes, churches, and civil society,” an unknown author submits in their essay posted online. “But today we have forgotten our heritage and only the skeleton remains. Even so, deep within the American character there lingers a Christian conscience ready to be revived by the spirit of God through awakened American Christian patriots………………. Our history is unique in that we were allowed to express the full flower of Christian civilization and government. This fact should give us cause to ponder the price we have paid for the maintenance of our Christian liberty. Will we be the generation that presides over its death?”

A haunting modern echo of the words of Thomas Jefferson, one of our founding fathers………

“God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever.” (Subscribed on the Jefferson Monument in Washington, D.C.)

I don’t know if this blog makes any sense today….finally finished four days after we have gone back to our daily lives having celebrated the 4th of July throughout the land called America……I don’t know if I conveyed my feelings about this country, about the direction its heading or the sorrow I feel for her greatness, once glorifying God and now only condemning itself to the annals of history where the writers will write, “The once grand experiment……failed”.

I leave you with a poem from Sir Frances Drake, sent to me in a devotional I read a few days ago. It is time for the patriotic to show their pride in country and countrymen, the faithful to express their faith in conduct and life and the Kingdom of God to be restored upon the societal fabric of our land.

It is time for us to surrender the comfortable uncomfortableness for the disturbance of God’s movement in our lives and once again cry out in humble thankfulness, “One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” It is time to dream the American Dream anew, from the freshness of the original hopes and dreams of the founding fathers and the ones who journeyed to its shores to establish a nation shining for God…….

We have been asleep for far too long………………………………

Sir Frances Drake:

Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves,
when our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little,
when we arrived safely because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
As Christians we know that with God all things are possible.
In are communities we face challenges both small and large.
Let us remember with God there is no task to large, and nothing is impossible.

Revival starts within each one of us,
as God moves and empowers us to speak a good word to our neighbor,
invite them to church,
to fellowship at your home.

Or just a warm greeting,
representing Christ in our actions.
Let us try to remember God in all we do,
and as a great Christian song says:

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
and the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.

I'm a racist, bad seed, shallow Christian.....judgments

“And at that time [Moses] gave orders to [Israel’s] judges, saying, ‘Let all questions between your brothers come before you for hearing, and give decisions uprightly between a man and his brother or one from another nation who is with him. In judging, do not let a man's position have any weight with you; give hearing equally to small and great; have no fear of any man, for it is God who is judge: and any cause in which you are not able to give a decision, you are to put before me and I will give it a hearing.’” (Deuteronomy 1:16-17 BBE)

I could probably write volumes about the judgments I have received from my ‘Christian’ brothers and sisters in the past six to eight months about the writing I have done and the decisions that I have made in the turmoil that has been my mainstay in the turbulent times of my journey towards home.

I have been made to feel unwelcome in houses of worship where once I was viewed as a ‘man of God’ and a devout Christian.

I have been called crazy for not standing against the rumors and gossip regarding my soon-to-be ex.

I have been questioned and questioned about my decisions to let my daughter move back home with her birth mother and moving out to the little (and I mean little) village of Holly, an hour more from everything my life is involved with.

I have been called a bad seed, a bad man, an evil father, and a host of other names that don’t usually come out of the mouths of Christians.

In my opposition and declarations against our new President, both before and after the election; I have been called a closet racist.

A BIC of mine, Christopher Jobe, on the Out of the Wild website wrote a topic about ‘judge not…’ He had heard a sermon on this subject and felt that too many Christians are wielding the “You’re too judgmental” sword freely “perhaps trying to escape accountability or perhaps trying to justify their actions to themselves.”

Matthew 7:1 is used as a thrusting weapon by both Christians and society alike against those who are challenging something we’ve said or done. As Jobe writes, “Matthew 7:1 is an easy verse to pull out when someone is challenging our walk or something we are doing. "Judge not..." But if we continue to read on in this verse, we see the words "...or you too will be judged." And if we read on even further in verse 6 we see Jesus talking about dogs and pigs and in verses 15-20 He talks about false prophets. Are not both of these instances making a judgment call on someone? Or at least a negative assessment? I Corinthians 5:1-11, 12-13 speak to Christians judging those inside the church that is our Christian brothers and sisters. We are like guardians of their walks with Christ. More passages that speak on judging are: I Corinthians 6:1-11, Romans 16:17-19, I Timothy 3:1-13 (judging or making a character call on potential deacons), Titus 1:5-16, 2 Timothy 4:1-8, and Matthew 23:1-39.”

He concludes, “The standards we apply to others are going to be applied to us, so judge very carefully. And always speak the truth in love.”

If I speak out to a brother in sinful repast, I speak out against myself too....especially if I am in the same condition.

I must be willing to face that old self in myself before I can speak to a brother in love, speaking the sin and not walking away but standing alongside that brother as the Spirit convicts and enables repentance and redemption.

To encourage, to edify in the things rightly done in the struggle and to rejoice in the victory. As the saying goes, “Hate the sin, love the sinner.”

Christianity has become timid of itself. If it opposes the culture, then it isn't capable of being spoken in love. This is foolishness. If I am in error and someone speaks the truth to me in an effort to bring me back from the sinful reprise, shouldn’t I be grateful? That they were willing to stand in that with me and point me the way?

Christ reproved His disciples, speaking the wayward behavior and standing with them as they began to repent...He showed them the reason they were in error, and then showed them the path to righteousness.

Shouldn't we do the same?

If we speak against the issues that our President calls "Dull and worn" because it is sin, if we show in that declaration that we do so in a reasoning of repentance and salvation because we, like God, desire that none should perish....then how can we not speak?
Tolerance is the new catchphrase…..we should give our President a chance, as he authorizes our tax money to reverse the downward trend of worldwide abortions, as he silences free speech, and as he promotes that which is an abomination to God’s design for marriage?

I pray for my ex, for my friends who have spoken against me, and for our leadership in the Congress, the Senate, and Judicial branch; and our Executive in the White House, President Barack Obama.

That they will see God’s ways and bring us into a new era of repentance and brotherhood…..in Christ.

As for me, call me 'judging' when I speak what God declares in His word to be the truth, for I want to be held to that standard and if I am indeed sinful...I want a brother or sister willing enough to speak that in love, judging me worthy of their concern for my walk…

Wouldn’t you?

Historical step, and an historic trust.....

“Then all the responsible men of Israel got together and went to Samuel at Ramah, And said to him, See now, you are old, and your sons do not go in your ways: give us a king now to be our judge, so that we may be like the other nations. But Samuel was not pleased when they said to him, Give us a king to be our judge. And Samuel made prayer to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, Give ear to the voice of the people and what they say to you: they have not been turned away from you, but they have been turned away from me, not desiring me to be king over them. As they have done from the first, from the day when I took them out of Egypt till this day, turning away from me and worshipping other gods, so now they are acting in the same way to you. Give ear now to their voice: but make a serious protest to them, and give them a picture of the sort of king who will be their ruler. And Samuel said all these words of the Lord to the people who were desiring a king. And he said, This is the sort of king who will be your ruler: he will take your sons and make them his servants, his horsemen, and drivers of his war-carriages, and they will go running before his war-carriages; And he will make them captains of thousands and of fifties; some he will put to work ploughing and cutting his grain and making his instruments of war and building his war-carriages. Your daughters he will take to be makers of perfumes and cooks and bread-makers. He will take your fields and your vine-gardens and your olive-gardens, all the best of them, and give them to his servants. He will take a tenth of your seed and of the fruit of your vines and give it to his servants. He will take your men-servants and your servant-girls, and the best of your oxen and your asses and put them to his work. He will take a tenth of your sheep: and you will be his servants. Then you will be crying out because of your king whom you have taken for yourselves; but the Lord will not give you an answer in that day. But the people gave no attention to the voice of Samuel; and they said, No, but we will have a king over us, So that we may be like the other nations, and so that our king may be our judge and go out before us to war. Then Samuel, after hearing all the people had to say, went and gave an account of it to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, Give ear to their voice and make a king for them.” (1 Samuel 8:4-22a BBE)

Today, the 20th day of January in the year 2009 will stand out for each and every American citizen as we watched via the Television, listened over the radio and internet, or (for a fortunate million or so) stood upon the lands of our nation’s capital and watched as the tradition of inaugurating our newly elected President happened for the 44th time in its history.

“I do solemnly swear to faithfully execute the office of the President of the United States of America…..”

Everyone seems to be caught up in the nationalistic fervor and euphoria of unity and change, which was the platform our newly elected President campaigned during one of the longest Presidential campaigns in our history. Relatively unknown prior to his ascension to public office as a Senator from Illinois, Barack Hussein Obama became, as he finished taking the oath as required by our Constitution, the first African-American President in our nation’s 233 year history.

Amid the cries of triumph and the tears of sorrow, one man stood where only forty-three others had stood before him and made an entry into the historical annuals of time. African-American leaders proclaimed justice served and the common citizen, both Caucasian and African-American, swelled their chests in pride at this outward appearance of ‘overcoming the racial divide’.

Indeed, it was an historical moment as the descendant of African slaves forced to labor in a country not their own claimed residence in the House built by those hands. The White House, symbolic seat of the American government. He placed his hand upon the Bible on which another fellow Illinoisan had taken his oath of office amid a national divide that would lead into the greatest war fought against countrymen on this soil. The Americans arrayed in the landscape around him rivaled the historic attendance set by another Democratic nominee some thirty-three years prior.

Today, President Barack Hussein Obama became truly one American, representative of both sides of the hyphen of his ethnicity. And upon the shoulders of this, one of the youngest and relatively inexperienced Presidents of our nation, rests the accomplishments of other African-Americans who have stood upon the soil of this land and declared through their actions and deeds that they were, indeed, citizens of the United States.

A long and distinguished history………………….

Both famously known and mere common folk who became the first for their race and led the way to the steps upon which our 44th President stood today…

Jupiter Hammon, who wrote the poem "An Evening Thought: Salvation by Christ with Penitential Cries", the first published author. Jen Baptiste Pointe due Sabe, the famous 'Father of Chicago", was that city's first settler. Phillis Wheatley, the first female author. The 1st Rhode Island Regiment of the U.S. military. Thomas L. Jennings, the first patent holder in 1821. Alexander Twilight of Vermont State Legislature, in 1836. Dr. James McCune Smith, the first doctor. Macon Allen, the first lawyer.

Dr. David J. Peck, first American educated doctor. Charles L. Reason, the first university professor. William Wells Brown, first author of a novel called "Clotel; (The President's Daughter)", who also was the first playwright published "The Escape; (A Leap for Freedom)". Sarah Jane Woodson Early, the first female college professor. 1st Louisiana Native Guard of the Confederate Army, first North American military unit with officers of African descent. Bishop Daniel Payne, first college president (Wilberforce College, Ohio). Martin Delany, first U.S. Army field officer. John Sweat Rock, first attorney admitted to the bar of the U.S. Supreme Court. Cathay Williams, first female enlistee in U.S. Army.

Oscar Dunn, first Lieutenant Governor (Louisiana). Ebenezer Don Carlos Bassett, first U.S. Diplomat (Haiti). Thomas Mundy Peterson, first to vote under the 15th Amendment in an election. Senator Hiram Rhodes Revels, first U.S. Congressman (Republican, Mississippi). Joseph Rainey, first U.S. Representative (Republican South Carolina). Edward Alexander Bouchet, first doctorate degree (Physics, Yale) and first graduate of Yale. Henry Ossian, first graduate of West Point and commissioned officer in U.S. Military. Mary Eliza Mahoney, first graduate of nursing school. Blanche K. Bruce, first signature on U.S. paper currency (Registrar of the Treasury) in 1881. Sarah E. Goode, first female to hold a patent. Father Augustine Tolton, first Roman Catholic priest. Jackie Robinson, the first African-American Major League Baseball player.

Wiley Overton, first police officer of present-day New York City department, hired first by Brooklyn. Matilda Sissieretta Joyner Jones, first opera singer at Carnegie Hall. W.E.B. Du Bois, first doctorate degree from Harvard University. Richard R. Wright, first appointed U.S. Army paymaster. Booker T. Washington, first to dine at the White House. Harry Lew, first professional basketball player (New England Professional Basketball League).

Jack Johnson, first heavyweight boxing champion. John Taylor, first Olympic gold medal winner (Track and Field). Madam C. J. Walker, first millionaire. Samuel J. Battle, first police officer of the newly incorporated New York City Police department and first Sergeant, Lieutenant, and parole commissioner. Fritz Pollard, first Rose Bowl football player (Brown University Bruins) who would be also the first to be named to an College Football All-American Team (Walter Camp All-American Football Team), and one of the first NFL professional football players in addition to being the first NFL co-coach. Bobby Marshall (Rock Island Independents) was the other who played professionally in the NFL. Bessie Coleman, first international licensed pilot. Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander, first woman PhD (Economics).

William DeHart Hubbard, first individual Olympic gold medal winner (Long Jump). Clifton R. Wharton, Sr., first Foreign Service Officer. Otelia Cromwell, first female o graduate from Smith College obtains PhD from Yale University. Josephine Baker, first international movie star (La Sirene des tropiques). Oscar Stanton De Priest, first post-Reconstruction U.S. Representative (Republican, Illinois). James W. Ford, first to run on presidential ticket in the 20th century. Arthur W. Mitchell, first democrat U.S. Representative (Illinois). William Grant Still, first conductor of a major U.S. orchestra (Los Angeles Philharmonic). William Henry Hastie, first federal magistrate and first governor (U.S. Virgin Islands). Hal Jackson, first network radio host (WINX-Washington, D.C.).

Hattie McDaniel, first Academy award (Best supporting actress, Gone with the Wind). Booker T. Washington, first portrait on a U.S. postage stamp. Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., first U.S. Army General and Brigadier-General. Josh White, first White House Command Performance. Dorie Miller, first Navy Cross recipient. The “Golden Thirteen”, the first commission Naval officers. Samuel Gravely, commissioned as a U.S. Navy officer who commanded a naval warship and achieved the rank of Admiral.
Dr. Howard Thurman, first co-pastor of the nation’s first interracial church (Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples). Todd Duncan, first member of the New York City Opera. Jackie Robinson, first Major League Baseball Player (Brooklyn Dodgers). Don Barksdale, first All-American basketball player who also achieved firsts in being on an Olympic Basketball team and Olympic gold medalist in basketball in addition to playing in an NBA All-Star game.

James Baskett, first Academy Award winner (Uncle Remus in Song of the South/ Honorary). Jesse L. Brown, first Naval aviator. William Grant Still, first composer to have his opera performed by a major U.S. company (Troubled Island by the New York City Opera). Alice Coachman, the first woman to win an Olympic gold medal Wesley Brown, first graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. Edward R. Dudley, first Ambassador of the United States.

Gwendolyn Brooks, first Pulitzer Prize winner (Book of poetry, Annie Allen). Ralph Bunche, first Nobel Peace Prize winner. The first NBA professional basketball players, Earl Lloyd (Washington Capitols), Chuck Cooper (Boston Celtics), Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton (New York Knicks). Ethel Waters, first star of a network television show (Beulah). Althea Gibson, first woman to compete on the World Tennis tour and Wimbledon tennis champion (Doubles) in addition to winning a Grand Slam event at the French Open.

Cora Brown, first woman elected to the U.S. State Senate (Democrat, Michigan). Frank E. Petersen, first U.S. Marine Corps aviator. Howard Thurman, first Dean of chapel at a majority white university (Boston University). Carl Brashear, first U.S. Navy Master Diver. Dorothy Dandridge, first woman nominee of the Academy Award for Best Actress (Carmen Jones) and the subject of the cover of LIFE magazine. Marian Anderson, first member of the Metropolitan Opera. Arthur Mitchell, first male dancer and principal dancer of a major ballet company (New York City Ballet). Leontyne Price, first singer in a telecast opera (NBC, Tosca). Nat King Cole, first male star of a network television show (The Nat King Cole Show). Lowell W. Perry, first assistant coach in the NFL , NFL broadcaster and plant manager of a U.S. Automobile company. Ruth Carol Taylor, first woman flight attendant (Mohawk Airlines). Ella Fitzgerald and Count Basie, first Grammy Award winners in the first year of its presentation. Reverend Clennon King, first U.S. Presidential candidate (Independent Afro-American Party). Ernie Davis, first Heisman trophy winner. Abraham Bolden, first U.S. Secret Service agent assigned to the White House detail. John Jordan “Buck” O’Neill, first coach in the MLB (Chicago Cubs). Bobo Brazil, first male world heavyweight champion in wrestling (NWA). Roland Davis, first bank examiner (U.S. Department of the Treasury).

Martin Luther King, Jr., first Time’s Magazine Man of the Year. Lloyd Sealy, first NYPD precinct commander. (28th precinct in Harlem). Walter Harris, first chess master. Bill Cosby, first star of a network television drama (I Spy). Benjamin Oliver Davis, Jr., first U.S. Air Force general (Three-star). Patricia Roberts Harris, first female ambassador of the United States (Luxembourg). Burl Toler, first NFL official (Field judge/Head Linesman). Bill Russell, first NBA coach (Boston Celtics). Robert C. Henry, first mayor of a major U.S. City (Springfield Ohio). Edward Brooke, first post-Reconstruction U.S. Senator elected by popular vote (Republican/Massachusetts). Emmett Ashford, first MLB umpire. Robert O. Lowery, first fire commissioner of a major U.S. city (New York City Fire Department). Carl B. Stokes, first elected major of a major U.S. city (Cleveland, Ohio). Thurgood Marshall, first Supreme Court justice of the United States. Robert Henry Lawrence, Jr., first selected for astronaut training. Benjamin Harris, first to walk in space.

Charlie Sifford, first winner of a PGA tour (Greater Hartford Open Invitational). Shirley Chisholm, first woman elected to U.S. House of Representatives (Democrat/New York) and major political party Presidential nominee to campaign. Arthur Ashe, first male to win a Grand Slam event (US Open). Marlin Briscoe, first starting quarterback in the modern era (Denver Broncos/AFL). Riley L. Pitts, first commissioned officer to be awarded the Medal of Honor. Nancy Hicks Maynard, first woman reporter for the New York Times. Lillian Lincoln, first graduate of the Harvard Business school. Hal Jackson and Percy Sutton, first owners of a radio station (WLIB-New York). Isaiah Edward Robinson, Jr., first president of the New York Board of Education.

Doris A. Davis, first woman mayor of a major metropolitan city (Compton, California). Walter Washington, first elected and first mayor (Washington D.C.). Frank Robinson, first manager of a MLB team (Cleveland Indians). Daniel James, Jr., first American Four-Star General. Barbara Jordan, first woman named TIME magazine’s Person of the Year.

Countless African-Americans who achieved firsts in the history of this nation enabled our 44th President to stand upon the steps of the Washington Memorial and become another first. Countless African-Americans and other ethnicities who refused to allow human decision to corrupt Godly authority…..that "all men were created equal."

George Washington, in his first inaugural address, still echoes in the halls of history…”The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered, perhaps, as deeply, as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.”

And it would seem, in his inaugural address, that our 44th President has heard the echoes of his predecessors. "If we are waiting for someone else to do something, it never gets done," said Barack Obama. "We are going to have to take responsibility [for our nation's well-being]. All of us. And so this is not just a one-day affair."

Today was a great and powerful statement to the citizens of the United States and a milestone in the historic growth of this once great nation. As one African-American, Byron Miller, said “We have gone from emancipation to inauguration.” Not just African-Americans, but the breath and dearth of the American citizenship. A lesson that has been hard to learn and harder to overcome. But we are not done.
President Barack Obama has been called a Messiah, a harbinger of hope, a messenger of change and his election does indeed show a change in the fundamentals of this nation.

But he, like all of us whether born of American birthright or immigrant, African-American or Caucasian-American, rich or poor, is but a broken, sinful human being 'for all have fallen short of the glory of God.'

We stand inside the door that we, the American people have opened; the door of the reality of one great American's dream, that the contents of a person's character stands more valued and sacred than the color of their skin.

It is that character that we, as a people, need to remember once more and restitch into the moral fabric of our country. In its laws, in its policies, and in its government.

To realize that theories that once called a ethnicity inferior and are promoted in our schools as fact have no place within our borders, that the continued killing of our generations to come disrupt and condemn this mighty experiment to failure by destroying the very hope that brought us this far, that commonality of purpose requires accountability to a higher ideal that is far beyond the definition and devising of mankind, and that morality doesn't lie upon the human definition of tolerance but upon the abiding and uncorrupted love born "one dark and hopeless Friday afternoon," as my mentor and friend said to me recently.

Human institutions are, by their very nature, human in their ability to be corrupted and become a source of tyranny and oppression. Human institutions cannot bring about moral and ethical change, neither can the symbol of one man no matter how charismatic or desirous of such change. There has been only one, who was both fully God and fully man, and His example is what we, as a nation, should follow. It is the framework upon which our Forefathers placed the character of this Republic.
It doesn't begin in the hallowed halls of that Republic, where career politicians forget the sacred trust that they have been given by the people who's voice they are supposed to speak into the laws and policies of the land. It doesn't not begin even in the fifty-two states seats of government. Nor at any other level of government in this nation.

As the lesson has been taught, it begins in the homes and the very hearts of the tiny villages and towns that dot the landscape of this country. Where people who refused to listen to the declarations of man and instead listened to the whispers of the Holy Spirit that declared the creation and expectation of God's creation of humanity. Who refused, though it might gain them temporary satisfaction or glory, to corrupt that very sacred truth and lived their lives in pursuit of ideals and moralities issued forth by that Creator. Refusing to listen to corrupt, sinful man and its institutions and listening to a God, both powerfully fearful and mercifully loving, to stand for things beyond their own reliance of understanding and for a wisdom that transcended their own profit.

The names of those African-American 'firsts' to which our 44th President joins and the names of those of other ethnicities who stood upon the moral ground of truth. Who realized that communicating with God through the reading and understanding of His word, praying and implementing such standards in their own lives was the only way, the best way, to overcome human fragility and sin.

I will be an active citizen, as I have in the past, and hold my government accountable to speak my voice. Not to standards to which I have decided but to a higher, more pure standard to which the Creator we owe our existence, our future, and our hope to.

I say my prayers for my leaders, duly elected in the political process that has govern this nation from its inception, for it is God who is ultimately in control and it is to God that we must, as guardians of this sacred Republic, turn. For the power we hold we corrupt, but the absolute power of God is incorruptible by human means.

As we ride the wave of a new future, where the racial barrier has been broken, let us not forget the lessons learned that has brought us to this day.

Even, the lessons learned this very day.

When the Chief Justice flubbed the Oath of Office, our new President elected to give grace…not condemnation.

When Pastor Rick Warren, of Saddleback Church, offered his prayer…..speaking truth to the God he serves, who saved him and yet speaking such truth with love and honor to those who would not believe such as he.

And to the dark and un-American statements made by another religious figurehead, Rev. Joseph Lowery, a United Methodist considered the dean of the civil rights movement, who gave voice to that which we've stated—as a nation—has no place within our walls when he said, " Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around --when yellow will be mellow --when the red man can get ahead, man --and when white will embrace what is right."

We, the United States of America, entrusted with the care of this nation, its citizens, and its future and with the election of our first African-American President, have declared with one voice that such a day has come.

Our 44th President faces challenges unique to his first elected term in office; the ongoing war in Iraq and Afghanistan and the economy to name a few. "Our schools are in disarray. Our stock market is sick. Our environment is taking a pounding. We face threats from Russia and a big shadow from China,” writes Mitch Albom, of the Detroit Free Press.

Theodore Roosevelt said, “Our loyalty is due entirely to the United States. It is due to the President only and exactly to the degree in which he efficiently serves the United States. It is our duty to support him when he serves the United States well. It is our duty to oppose him when he serves it badly. This is true….about all our Presidents in the past. It is our duty at all times to tell the truth about the President and about every one else, save in the cases where to tell the truth at the moment would benefit the public enemy.”

The awareness of moral and ethical conduct of a people to prefer right over wrong, and to demand that all people of the nation conform their wills to the production of such right conduct is the fabric of the United States of America. As we step into a future achieved by the promotion of the first African-American President in our history, let us step forward in the traditions set forth by the laws of this land.

We can stand morally and patriotically, disagreeing with the policies and laws that the residing President may wish to impose upon the whole of the citizenry in the proper and ethical traditions of engaging our governmental officials to speak and vote the voice of the people. We may disagree with other citizens, and the forum of our official governing bodies are the ground in which to speak those disagreements.

It isn’t about the color of a man’s skin that will cause dissension, and it will show how far this country has come when the citizenship that disagrees with his policies are allowed to speak just as the ones who agree are given a voice also. The first African-American President serves not only liberals, not only African-Americans, but all people.

Let us be worthy of the history that has created this grand experiment, the lives that have paid its price of birth, and the hands upon which its life rest.


Thomas Jefferson once said, “All Tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.”

Our government is of the people, for the people, and governs by the people. And it is not only our President, Barack Hussein Obama, for which history stands in wait for its opinion of our faithfulness to the sacred trust of this Republic which lies in the hands of the citizenship which it was designed to serve.

President Barack Obama spoke true words forged from the lessons of our nation's history in his inaugural speech today, “On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas…………We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things…………. As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake………. it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies………………….”

Will he live up to those ideals and perform the duties of the Office of the President of the United States for the people of this land? Will the Congress, designed to legislate into laws the wishes of the people, perform its duties according to the will of the people? Will the Judicial branch, given the voice not of themselves, but of the people speak the laws given by the Congress in truth and honor?

Will we, the citizenship of this nation, hold ourselves accountable as well? To preserve, defend, and protect the Constitution of the United States, the framework of a nation OF the people, FOR the people, and BY the people?

I didn’t vote for President Barack Hussein Obama, because I don’t agree with the policies and ideals that are liberal in nature of which he campaigned, because I believe will slide this once morally sound and patriotically strong country built upon the Christian tenants brought by the first citizens to its shores further away from such ideals which constitute that sacred trust.

America is far greater than the sum of its citizens and far superior than the corrupt institutions of human-making. For it is……

"One nation, Under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for All."

So help us, God.

Renew the true hope....God is on His throne....

“The wicked plots against the righteous and gnashes his teeth at him, but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he sees that his day is coming. The wicked draw the sword and bend their bows to bring down the poor and needy, to slay those whose way is upright; their sword shall enter their own heart, and their bows shall be broken. Better is the little that the righteous has than the abundance of many wicked. For the arms of the wicked shall be broken, but the LORD upholds the righteous. The LORD knows the days of the blameless, and their heritage will remain forever; they are not put to shame in evil times; in the days of famine they have abundance. But the wicked will perish; the enemies of the LORD are like the glory of the pastures; they vanish--like smoke they vanish away.” (Psalm 37:12-20 ESV)

The world has erupted, seeming to spin into chaos and destruction; not only with the election of our 44th President but a host of legal passages in several states that have gone against the ‘homosexual agenda’; state constitutional amendments have affirmed those states’ citizenry define marriage as between ‘one man and one woman.’

Gay rights supporters waving rainbow colors marched, chanted and danced in cities coast to coast Saturday to protest the vote that banned gay marriage in California, gathering in cities like Boston, San Francisco, Chicago and Fargo. In Florida, violent protestors struck and stomped a homemade cross carried by a silent elderly supporter of Prop 8. They say it’s simply a matter of ‘get[ting] the rights we deserve as Americans.’

From California to Maine, police have documented a range of alleged crimes, from vandalism and vague threats to at least one physical attack. Insults and taunts against African-Americans and the President-elect have been verbalized, at least according to the Associated Press.

Mark Potok, director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center said he believes there is "a large subset of white people in this country who feel that they are losing everything they know, that the country their forefathers built has somehow been stolen from them."

This is not the America that will, as our President-elect proclaimed in his weekly address via internet, “resolve to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves, but each other…”

As I posted in my pre-election blog, “Obama….” Thursday, October 2, 2008, John Ortberg brought to my attention that the perfect government is far from a realization, as is the perfect world, because we are flawed, sinful human beings, and the our governing institution is a human one.

As Christians, we are called to preach the Gospel; simply…..Jesus Christ came to the earth, was crucified upon the Cross, died, and rose again three days later to bear the punishment for our sins. We are called to live lives reflective of God’s grace and mercy….and to hold ourselves accountable to His commandments and teachings.
We ‘lost’ the election, and protected in several states the biblical standard of marriage.

This doesn’t mean that the Kingdom will be ushered in, that we will become better parents, or that marriages will reflect agape love. Greed and pride, as we see evidenced in the chaos in our own country, won’t become illegal or passé, humanity will not jump on the ‘servant’ bandwagon, and we will not be the created creatures we were designed to be.

We held true, at least most of us, to the standards we were supposed to in the political election; We voted, in an educated way, in a civil and respective manner. Voting our morals and our values, as biblically defined, was reflective as Pastor Ortberg said, to be redemptive; to bring this nation back into a God-fearing, God-honoring state.

President-elect Barrack Obama is the 44th President of the United States. There is no call among Christians for attacks on those who bear the same or more melanoma colorization as he does. There is no reason for the name-calling, protest walking and racial taunts that haunt the airwaves, and I don’t believe true Christians are doing so.

Because those who so believe know that God is still on His throne and these things too must come to pass.

Now is the time, in the winter of our discontent, to stand upon what we preach, what we say, and what we hope. We stand, as Christian-Americans, and read about the issues, debating them in a respectful manner, and learn about the policies our President will implement. We pray, and speak our beliefs in the public square with respect and dignity. We preach about God’s loving concern for all; His standard of peace, justice, and righteousness."

Too many Christians are engrossed in ‘comfortable theology, good music, activities for their children, and the promise of no mediocre potluck fare at the annual picnic’ than biblical truth, teaching, and reflective public display of our faith.
Our President-elect calls for a change, and tells us that ‘doing all this will require not just new policies, but a new spirit of service and sacrifice.’

I would say to our President-elect that new policies aren’t needed because policies are just one opinion that like-it-or-not we, the governed people of America, have to follow unless and until we either elect another President or impeach him.

I would say it is not a ‘new’ spirit of servant sacrifice that is needed, nor a renewed sense of our fellow man"….but the reawakening of that biblical hope realized in the midst of a chaotic world that transcends the hopelessness of human invention.

To see what our eyes cannot see, and to hope beyond the realization of human possibilities.


“Are those then sane who cannot obtain any certainty of the divine favour, because the carnal eye is now unable to discern it from the present appearance of the world? But, they say, it is rash and presumptuous to pretend an undoubted knowledge of the divine will. I would grant this, did we hold that we were able to subject the incomprehensible God to our feeble intellect.” John Calvin wrote, “[We] simply say with Paul, “We have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.” (Book III, Chap II, pp502-503 Institutes of Christian Religion.)

I spoke out against Obama and Senator McCain. I pondered why, if an historical nomination and election of an African-American was so important to African-Americans, Allan Keyes was not nominated and elected. I have warned against policies and influences of socialistic and liberation theologies. Before the election. And in the election, I voted my values and my candidate was not elected.

After the election, I expressed the attentiveness that I feel all Christians should have, regardless of who is President……

Am I afraid? No, as I mentioned to a brother today……the Devil can ‘bring it on.’
Am I racist? No, for I believe that a ‘man’ should be judged not by the color of his skin but by the contents of his character as the great American Martin Luther King spoke in his memorable speech, “I have a DREAM.”

I will serve the President-elect as a citizen of this nation; offering my opinion via my vote, my correspondence, and my voice concerning the policies which he presents, and accept the governance of the human institution as I walk this world, for God is still upon His throne. My body belongs in this world and will die with it, but my heart belongs to my Savior and will live beyond any human invention. We have nothing to fear from those who can kill the body, for God has our eternal life in His hands.

If I stand upon what my fragile and human eyes can see in this world, I allow myself to become prey to temptations to push it a bit farther, until the scriptural message becomes my own wounds speaking for protection, for acceptance, and for love (according to me).

What ‘little’ I have; be it possessions, finances, or freedom…they all come from a God that is righteous, mighty, and all-encompassing; far beyond any elected official or the policies of the human institutions. My wealth is far better than the wealth of this world, for a peace that this world cannot give falls upon my shoulders each day.

I know that God has His eyes upon my days, and the actions I take in His name for His glory and for the Kingdom.

I will use my rights as a citizen to uphold those values and morals that God has given; and I believe. If this world continues to slide into the human condition of self-government, it doesn’t change my days upon this world….they were numbered before Obama or I were born….it will not change my happiness that comes from the heavenly hope and promise. That shall last far beyond such days as these.

So, I am satisfied that I voted according to my beliefs, and I was in the minority. That work is over, and the governance of another not chosen is in the future. I shall render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s. But God still calls me to a good work, the Great Commission is still in place, and it shall not end until the moment Jesus Christ rides across the skies in triumphant return.

So, as the world falls in upon its own devices stand alone and pray. When confronted with an anger that comes from the wounds of another’s broken humanity, have grace with your words and speak truth in love. Don’t confront, but refuse to move from the values and morals that God ordained and spoke into the hearts of all.

You have felt the thirst and know it shall not be satisfied upon this landscape. So, if one strikes you upon the left cheek, offer the right also.

And love them anyway.

Christ told us that we would know persecution and tribulations. A faith untested is a faith that is weak and unsure. So welcome the torment of those who don’t accept Christ as your due, and answer them with the assurance that comes from an eternal hope. For if we can suffer but a little bit for the sake of the Savior, we should consider ourselves honored and blessed to do so.

My faith is strong, and I welcome the opportunity to grow it even stronger in the light of persecution.

For though they may come after us with 'swords and spears', and victory seems to fall upon their shoulders as easily as the morning dew…..they are no more sinners than we and in no need of salvation greater than ourselves are.

We are all fallen far short of the glory of God, we are all incapable of our own salvation, and we are all beholding to the One who stood in our place to die a perfect sacrifice for our sinful need.

May God bless our 44th President, burdened with an historical mandate not of his own….but God’s.

May his term or terms in office be honoring to God, and a blessing to the people to which he was elected to govern.

May God speak words of mission to him, and give him the power to perform the tasks to which he is called.

And may God bless my country, my homeland, and my fellow citizens.

God bless the U.S.A.

"Let us be satisfied that God will make all to work for good to us. Let us not discompose ourselves at what we see in this world. A fretful, discontented spirit is open to many temptations. For, in all respects, the little which is allotted to the righteous is more comfortable and more profitable than the ill-gotten and abused riches of ungodly men. It comes from a hand of special love. God provides plentifully and well, not only for his working servants, but for his waiting servants. They have that which is better than wealth, peace of mind, peace with God, and then peace in God; that peace which the world cannot give, and which the world cannot have. God knows the believer's days. Not one day's work shall go unrewarded. Their time on earth is reckoned by days, which will soon be numbered; but heavenly happiness shall be for ever. This will be a real support to believers in evil times. Those that rest on the Rock of ages, have no reason to envy the wicked the support of their broken reeds." Matthew Henry….

It doesn't matter who is President......

"After Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim king of Judah and the officials, the craftsmen and the artisans of Judah were carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the Lord showed me two baskets of figs placed in front of the temple of the Lord. One basket had very good figs, like those that ripen early; the other basket had very poor figs, so bad they could not be eaten. Then the Lord asked me, 'What do you see, Jeremiah?' 'Figs,' I answered. 'The good ones are very good, but the poor ones are so bad they cannot be eaten.' Then the word of the Lord came to me: 'This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: 'Like these good figs, I regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I sent away from this place to the land of the Babylonians. My eyes will watch over them for their own good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not uproot them. I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord. They will be my people and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart. But like the poor figs, which are so bad they cannot be eaten,' says the Lord, 'so will I deal with Zedekiah king of Judah, his officials and the survivors from Jerusalem, whether they remain in this land or live in Egypt. I will make them abhorrent and an offense to all the kingdoms of the earth, a reproach and a byword, an object of ridicule and cursing, wherever I banish them. I will send the sword, famine, and plague against them until they are destroyed from the land I gave to them and their fathers." Jeremiah 24:1-10 (NIV)

The United States of America made 'history' through the decision of its governed people in the nomination and election of the first African-American President, the 44th one elected, Illinois Senator Barack Hussein Obama; son of a Kenyan father and Caucasian mother. The streets of Chicago, Detroit, and other major cities were overcome with joy and celebration. Black fists raised in the air, comments of 'Finally!' and so on as the African-Americans find vindication in the election of a 'black' leader.

Some leaders within the Christian community decry those who say that people voted because of race instead of change. They ignore the comments of several voters throughout the political landscape, who spelled such motivation bravely and proudly, after the endorsement partially because of the same reason by ex-Secretary of State Coleman Powell. The claim that the winning of the Latino vote proves race was not a factor is onerous, because the Latino community typically identifies with the African-Americans in this country. Of course, such is not the only reason; this country has become a shadow of itself and the liberal, socialistic ideologies of the American people are the dominate majority in the country.

Regardless of the reason, the American people elected by the majority our 44th President in the history of the United States of America, Barack Hussein Obama, ex-Senator from Illinois.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said in his first state of the nation speech that Russia will station short-range missiles near its border with Poland if Obama proceeds with Bush’s plan to station missile defense systems in Poland and the Czech Republic.

The global economic crisis could limit Obama’s flexibility in defense and foreign affairs, and while foreign leaders may chose not to fulfill Vice-President elect Joseph Biden's prophecy of an Obama trial by fire, Richard Haass, President of the Council on Foreign Relations, says,

"One thing I'm sure of is, events will test him. There will be coups....genocide.....terrorism."

This President, untested in foreign affairs, faces such an unsettled and anti-American global scene unseen since the 1930s and 1940s. Beyond the economy and the wars, there's the need to address what most believe are climate changes of a disastrous nature, improve America's energy independence from foreign oil, taxes, reformation of health care, immigration and solve a budget deficit made bigger by the government's socialistic move to prop up businesses

We can complain about the election; offering claims of 'buying the White House', that Obama used 'race' to win, or a host of other possibly legitimate reasoning behind it all. Or we can look at our culture, our society, and our faith to discover a possibility beyond such petty human reasons. We have been living in the days before Noah for some time now.

"Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. The LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God. Noah became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. Then God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth. Genesis 6:1-13 (GWT)

It is glorious that an African-American has been elected President of the United States. Slavery was a sin of the Republic and racism remains the bitter experience of too many Americans; of all races and, while such an historic election doesn't end racism, it does bring the country in a positive, symbolic step in that direction. But, unfortunately, racism is not the only culturally destructive tendencies that we, as a people, have engaged in for the 'modern-day pre-Noah' depravity.

"For the last two millennia, the Christian community, educated with ideas drawn from Scripture and applied to every area of life and reality, has been the most powerful culture-forming agent. In other words, the church is the instrument by which God brings forth His kingdom and as the kingdom spreads, the culture is Christianized." S. Michael Craven, of the Center for Christ & Culture, says "In a world of false ideas competing to explain the world, it was Christians, armed with the energy of an all-embracing life-system (i.e., Christian worldview) that shaped Western culture. This energy–now severed from its historic understanding–has been depleted in recent generations through spiritual sloth, theological ignorance, anti-intellectualism, and cultural apathy."

For a country established upon the Gospel message, and led by the foundational inclusion of such biblical strengths as the Ten Commandments, it is such supposition and assumption that because of our exposure to and the material blessings resulting from the Gospel; far beyond possibly any other nation in the history of this world, that has caused us to be in a far more perilous place before God than we ever may have realized with the continued decline of our society.

Barack Obama, the liberal Senator of Illinois, may have caused deception and lies to sway enough Americans to vote him into office; may have taken foreign donations, gaining world opinion, and profited from a poor performance from the Republican choice of President. But, if society was not a reflection of what Obama represents, we would be giving the oath to another nominee who gain the majority of the vote.

God wants to have mercy upon us, if only for the sake of the faithful that reside within this nation's borders. God wants to bless and bring honor to a nation that brings Him glory. But He can also withhold that blessing, mercy, and grace from a nation that turns its back to Him. We cannot claim ignorance, acting as if God hasn't given us His direction and His desires for us individually and nationally. We do not have the excuse of modern-day Ninevahs; who 'could not tell their right hand from their left.' (Jonah 4:11)

Our fate doesn't lie in the hands of President-elect Obama, nor the government he forms. It lies within our conduct, our expression of faith, and the testimony of that hope established upon a cross of wood and iron.

Jesus established our conduct and relationships as necessary components to our witness on behalf of God to the world, dark and fallen in a deadly state of sin. It is because we have continued to fail to bring our conduct within the biblical context; allowing 'the devil we know' to be nominated, failing to uphold a moral ethics, and refusing to elect those who don't represent our values, that will spell our doom; as a people and a nation, leading us into the ruin of history as so many societies and nations that have fallen before us.

"We are going to see, I think, unprecedented attacks against our faith through measures like the hate crimes [legislation] to the Employment Non-Discrimination Act," Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, says. "We're going to see attacks on innocent human life through the Freedom of Choice Act, trying to erase all the gains that have been made in the pro-life movement. And I think even our freedoms are going to come under attack."

God holds all nations in His plans as evidenced by the Scriptures: He gives nations to those whom he wills, Isaiah 41:2, reigning over all of them, Psalm 99:2, and at the end of all time, all nations of this world will worship Him and their people declare His praise, Revelation 15:4. The United States of America holds no distinction from the rest of the world and the nations that inhabit it; beyond being once more knowledgeable of God's will and direction.

As our mothers used to say, "You know better."

Once a small core group of British subjects living upon a colonial shore rose up against their mother country and said, "No more." They had to bear arms against an army with more soldiers, battle-hardened and trained, to stand upon their declaration. Many gave their blood upon that famous 'tree of liberty' and came together 'under God' to form a grand experiment all the world was certain would fail; a Republic of the people and for the people. The leadership of this country has fallen from the path of that once-grandeur path, and it is time for the true patriots to rise again from the villages and towns of this country. A call to arms, not unlike the one given so long ago, resounds throughout the countryside; galloping steeds bearing loud, boisterous riders shouting the cry.

"The enemy is coming! The enemy is coming! To your knees!"

It is not for these new patriots, possibly soon to be labeled criminals (as were our founding fathers), to grasp weapons of humanity; those tools of warfare. To gain a coup on the human effort of military overthrow or personal threat against our leadership. That is not the way of the Lord God and it cannot be our way as His followers.

No, the modern-day patriot, following the principles established by those patriots found in the Old and New Testaments, seize upon the weapons of God; prayer, established law, and their principles of faith to drop to their knees.

Not to call for the destruction of the presidency of Barack Obama, nor an unfortunate demise to fall upon the government that he forms.

No, as in Jeremiah 29:7, where God told the Israelites to pray for Babylon, their captors (Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper) and as Paul commanded us, in his letter to Timothy, to pray for "kings and all who are in authority." The principle of God's people praying for the welfare of the governments over them, regardless of their sinful nature or biblical following, is a foundational weapon in the arsenal of the faithful and is called to be used.

God can touch an unbeliever, a deceived and wayward follower, and even the humanistic confusion of a false doctrine. He can use the prayers of the faithful to destroy, redeem, and lead to repentance even the most foul of nations. He allows us to nominate our leaders and expects us to bring those leaders under prayerful supplication regardless of our vote for or against.

President-elect Barack Obama doesn't know me from the multitudes that gathered around him that night of his historic victory in Chicago Illinois and has no idea of my political views, morals, and hopes; though he opposes them, at least according to the words of his mouth, the push of his finger upon the voting buttons in the Senate, and the written doctrine of his campaign. He will never call my cell and ask for me to offer him counsel and prayer for the enormous task of leading this nation.

But God calls me to do so; to pray for Barack Hussein Obama to feel and listen to the voice of God, to be guided by His hand and to bring this nation into repentance. God tells me to pray for Obama's health, far beyond the human physical health, in the spirit, that he will know of the need for salvation and grasp upon Christ's offer freely given. God allows for me to use legal means of expressing myself and my views to my Commander-in-Chief through my elected officials, whether I voted for them or not, and the Constitution that allows me to address my government concerning things I oppose. God tells me one thing that I must do, regardless of what our 44th President will do.

Pray for him, that his leadership would bring glory and honor to God, that this nation be led to repentance and redemption through his leadership, and that God would bring His hand to bear in the answering of such prayers; withholding judgment from those who are repenting, to judge those who aren't and who are falsely leading many astray, and to show His will for a nation fallen from His path.

Whatever the next four years bring, I will pray for God to reveal Himself and His will to President Obama and that He have mercy for those he governs as well as those who govern us. Through this action, I know, that God will use whatever happens to bring His faithful closer to Him and will not abandon them to the wages of sin that befall those who oppose God. I will pray for the political process and a restoration of its lofty goals; the election of leaders to lead this country in a Godly manner.

I will pray for those who guide us at all levels of government; that they will faithful execute the duties of their offices in a manner bringing God glory and honor through their servant leadership. And that God will hold them accountable as He holds me accountable.

Whatever trials I may face are nothing as those who face the wrath of the Almighty God, who have turned away willingly and with malice, from His path.

May God have mercy upon their souls.