Unless you’ve been living in your basement for the last year or so you’ve watching the worst international disaster unfold daily before your eyes. While you are watching the international disaster unfold remember there is one person who had the authority, opportunity, and the means to prevent all this from happening instead he choked and gave an elbow bump to the Speaker (1). I wonder how he sleeps at night.
That chocking has caused untold suicides, anger, anxiety, mental anguish, deaths, and economic chaos in large portions of our population through many edicts by Joe who was allowed to be unlawfully seated.
As we hear testimony I wonder who is in charge from the miraculous emergence from the basement. Two generals claim they warned Joe not to surrender. One of those generals also conspired with China.
Early after the election it became apparent that body doubles were needed for Joe. Perhaps the generals did warn one of the body doubles perhaps not all of them. (2)
“Arthur Roberts, the 83-year-old C-List actor who portrays Joseph Biden on television and in person, blew his cover during a televised press conference with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson earlier this week.” (2)
“In a moment not caught on microphone and spoken softly enough for the press pool to not overhear, Roberts began lamenting to Johnson his failed film career, and he asked the UK Prime Minister whether he had seen the films Little Miss Magic and Up in Smoke, in which he had minor roles.” (2)
“A theatrically masked Boris Johnson, our source said, discretely muted his microphone and spoke softly in Roberts’ direction, asking, “You’re not Joe Biden. Who the bloody h** are you?”(2)
“Even though he muted his mic, Jen Psaki and White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield were in another office, and able to overhear the entire discourse through hidden parabolic mics in the briefing room. They, how should I put this, freaked the f*** out. They began screaming into Roberts’ hidden earpiece to get back on script or read only from the teleprompter. That’s when Roberts silenced his own mic and told Boris he was only joking around. But Psaki feared the situation would deteriorate, and she immediately ordered the room cleared,” our source said. (2)
He added that a bewildered Johnson later asked Psaki “what the h** just happened,” and was told to forget the entire incident, unless the UK wanted to lose all U.S. support.”(2)
Joe’s hallmark is suppression or elimination of those who disagree with him, a Soviet Union and a Red China tactic. Here is one example of a silencing: Lt. Col. Scheller’s Attorney Joins Tucker Carlson to Discuss His Political Imprisonment For Speaking Out Against Biden’s Afghanistan Debacle; Marine’s Father Also Issues Statement. (3)
Tucker Carlson talks to an attorney representing a Marine who has been imprisoned after publicly criticizing Biden's withdrawal from Afghanistan.
People don’t like being oppressed. People don’t like being lied to. People don’t like their voice silenced at the ballot box.
Here is Kari Lake’s take: AZ Gubernatorial Candidate Kari Lake After AZ Audit Results – Calls For INDICTMENTS Against LYING Fake News: “We Should Look At CRIMINALLY Charging Them As Well” (4)
State Senator Sonny Borrelli weighs in: AZ State Senator Sonny Borrelli – Evidence Turned Over To AG Brnovich For Criminal Investigation – MSM PsyOp Spreads Propaganda To Demoralize Americans (5)
All is not lost, there is hope, and together we will get through this fine kettle of fish. We are a strong people. We are a resilient people. Corrections are on the way.
Look up, our help comes from above. The photo on top was taken in Perry, Georgia before the Rally (6).
92 Legislators from Multiple States Write a Letter to the American People Calling for a 50-State Audit, Decertification Where Appropriate, and Possible Convening of the US House of Representatives pic.twitter.com/A6EztSR2L1
On the ballot are two different visions for America: government power vs. empowerment of people. The choice is ultimately between politicians who seek to confiscate and redistribute wealth (creating a perpetual underclass that’s dependent on government) on the one hand, or those who empower the individual on the other hand, enabling us each to work towards our God-given destiny.
Jesus wants us to help the poor and the underclass. Nothing helps them more than to help them become empowered themselves, living out their gifts and talents. In His classic parable of the talents, Jesus commends those who work hard with the talents He has entrusted to them, and He condemns the one who buried His talent in the ground. We should seek to help others to fulfill their calling. “A hand out” may be necessary in emergency situations, but “a hand up” is much better in the long run.
This power versus empowerment dichotomy can be seen in tax cuts. Tax cuts put money back in your pocket, instead of that of the government bureaucrat. Tax cuts empower we the people. But the political elitist class loses power through tax cuts. So they oppose them—even though liberal icon JFK, a proponent of tax cuts, said in reference to them that a rising tide lifts all boats.
A conservative believes that you are best qualified to take care of yourself and your family. A liberal believes that the government is best qualified to take care of you and your family. That’s the difference, plain and simple.
Dr. Ben Carson is a renowned neurosurgeon and currently serves as the head of the Department of Housing and Urban Department for President Trump.
He and his brother grew up in grinding poverty, in a housing development in Detroit with their single-parent mom.
But to help them break free from a life of dependence upon government, their mother insisted that each of them read a book a week in order to expand their lives (to empower them). She even forced them to write book reports on each of them for her perusal. Dr. Carson realized later she probably was not even literate enough to read those book reports, but they still produced them. Both brothers became well-educated and made something of their lives, because of her faith in the Lord and in them.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, our schools were shut down. Some have reopened. But in Los Angeles, the teachers’ union made a series of demands if the schools were to be reopened. Included in their mandates was that there be a moratorium on building new charter schools. Nothing like trying to squash your competitors.
Generally children thrive in alternative forms of schooling, such as private schools, charter schools, and home schools.
Parents in poor neighborhoods especially want to have school choice because it can empower their children to make something of their lives. But the teachers’ union sought to protect the power of its own members—rather than empower children and families.
College would seem to be a great place to become empowered—to learn things with which to make something of one’s life. But much of college education today is just politically correct indoctrination.
Victor Davis Hanson writes (7/23/20): “1960s student radicals graduated without much debt and for all their hipness could enter a booming economy with marketable skills. Today’s angry graduates owe a collective $1.6 trillion in student loan debt—much of it borrowed for mediocre, therapeutic, and politicized training that does not impress employers….In other words, today’s radical is far more desperate and angry that his college gambit never paid off.”
Those who become reliant on permanent government handouts ultimately develop a sense of entitlement—as if this money is owed them. How much better to train, to teach, to educate, to inspire, to motivate, than it is to keep people in perpetual reliance on the government, in exchange for their votes.
Steve Moore, the FreedomWorks economist, who worked for the Reagan administration and who has advised President Trump’s campaign, recorded a recent PragerU video (10/7/20). He points out: “Red state America is prospering. Blue state America is in meltdown. So where do you want to live?” For the most part, Red state America is engaged in trying to empower its citizens. The leaders in Blue state America are trying to cling to power—even using it to shut down churches and schools in the name of fighting the pandemic.
Here’s the kicker. While many on the left essentially want a perpetual underclass as their power base, everyone will one day die and give an account to our Maker as to what we did with our lives.
In Election 2020, there is a hidden issue on the ballot. That issue is which vision we choose to pursue: power for power’s sake or empowering as many citizens as want to be empowered for a better future.
At the Colson Center we’re always trying to point you to resources, not only from us but from our friends who offer a Christian worldview perspective and hope for living in our cultural moment.
There’s a reason that a lot of these resources are written by my friend Os Guinness. Os is a gift to the Christian community. He helps us think deeply about things that matter and presents them in a way that is understandable.
Os’s latest book, “The Magna Carta of Humanity: Sinai’s Revolutionary Faith and the Future of Freedom” is another must-read. Christians today are increasingly feeling the pressure of living in a cultural moment that champions freedom, but means something completely different by the word. It’s always a freedom from any sort of restraint; not a freedom for who we are, who we were made to be, and what it means to live together.
Os Guinness’s book describes a choice that’s in front of humanity right now. Below is an excerpt of a Os’s presentation on his new book:
For anyone who’s thinking deeply, we’re in an extraordinary civilizational moment. The West, which has dominated the world for 500 years, is in evident decline. The United States, which is the world’s lead society, is suffering the greatest crisis in its history since the Civil War. The Christian church, which has been the single strongest influence in the West, is plagued with scandals and divisions and confusion and lack of confidence. There’s no question that America is as deeply divided at any moment since the Civil War, but why?
Some blame the social media. Some a president. To some, it’s the coastals against the heartlanders; some, the nationalists and populists over against the globalists. But what I’m arguing, and I think the deepest way of looking at it, is there’s a difference between those who understand the republican freedom from the perspective of the American Revolution, and those who understand it from the perspective of the French Revolution and its heirs.
Things like postmodernism, political correctness, tribal politics, identity politics, the sexual revolution, cancel culture, neo-Marxism, all of these have come down from the heirs of the French Revolution, and they are an entirely different revolution and a type of revolution that has never succeeded and that has always ended in oppression.
So, my book shows the differences between, say, their sources: one, the Bible, the other, the French Enlightenment. Their views of humanity: The Bible’s, very realistic with notions like checks and balances, and separation of powers; and the other’s, utopian and very dangerous. And you can see the differences right down to those that are roiling America this year, like critical race theory and different notions of justice. Both sides agree there is injustice, sometimes terrible injustice, but the differences come in how we address them.
As I said, the radical left only leads to oppression and failure and always has. Whereas the Gospel, in addressing these things, puts wrongs right, and after repentance and reconciliation and forgiveness, really leads to restoration so that enemies can be made friends again.
What I’ve tried to write is the deepest analysis of what’s gone wrong today. I have written this book to provide a constructive way forward. Because Sinai, the exodus roots of the American revolution, are what I argue is a magna carta for humanity. It’s time for Christians to get off the back foot and stop being defensive. Our views of freedom, justice, human dignity, words, truth, and many other issues are not only good news, They are the best news ever.
I want you to have this book. I think it’s incredibly important. And so, for a donation of any amount this month to the Colson Center, I will send you a copy of “The Magna Carta of Humanity,” Os Guinness’s latest book.
This book is important because it drives us towards a deeper understanding of how we got to this time and this place in human history. At the same time, it offers a hopeful way forward, showing us how the Christian worldview is not only true, but good. And it’s good, not only for Christians, but it’s good for the cultural moment.
Go to breakpoint.org/august to make a donation of any amount to the Colson Center, and receive a copy of the book, “The Magna Carta of Humanity,” by the brilliant Os Guinness.
BreakPointis a program of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. BreakPoint commentaries offer incisive content people can’t find anywhere else; content that cuts through the fog of relativism and the news cycle with truth and compassion. Founded by Chuck Colson (1931 – 2012) in 1991 as a daily radio broadcast, BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today’s news and trends. Today, you can get it in written and a variety of audio formats: on the web, the radio, or your favorite podcast app on the go.
John Stonestreetis President of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, and radio host of BreakPoint, a daily national radio program providing thought-provoking commentaries on current events and life issues from a biblical worldview. John holds degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (IL) and Bryan College (TN), and is the co-author of Making Sense of Your World: A Biblical Worldview.
A lot of terms are thrown around today to describe extremist movements. One that keeps coming up is “cultural Marxism.” In an attempt to add clarity, political and historical accuracy, Clarion Project investigates the origin and current usage of the term and offers our suggestions going forward.
1 The modern term “cultural Marxism” morphed from its original expression, which was “cultural Bolshevism.” This latter term originated in Germany as a response to the Frankfurt School in the Weimar Republic of the 1920s as a way to denounce the modernist movement in the arts and culture and was later used by the Nazis to claim that the Bolsheviks, the Marxist revolutionary movement in Russia, wanted to subvert the Germany values of family and national identity as well as its traditions in music, art and intellectual ideas.
However, the term “cultural Bolshevism” in Germany was also fundamentally used as an antisemitic canard based on the conspiracy theory that the Jews were behind the 1917 communist revolution in Russia. This canard was aided by the 1920s’ global circulation of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a made-up document published in Russia in 1903 that purported to describe a secret Jewish conspiracy aimed at world domination. (To this day, Far-Right circles continue to believe that communism is a Jewish conspiracy.) In reality, by December 1917, only five of the 21 members of the Communist Central Committee were Jews.
2 Even though the term originated as an antisemitic Nazi trope, most people using it today are unaware of its origins or implied meaning. They certainly are not using it as an antisemitic slur. For example, celebrated thought-leader Jordan Peterson uses the term “cultural Marxism” in a context completely different from its origins. Andrew Breitbart, founder of the Right-wing Breitbart News platform, also popularized the term despite being Jewish himself.
A more accurate representation of the use of this term by the above figures and similar conservative thinkers would probably be “neo-Marxism,” as this expression more accurately describes the aspirations of the specific demographic that favors the uprooting of our existing systems.
In its most extreme, the program advocated by this demographic is based on Chapter 2 of the Communist Manifesto, which outlines the core goal of communism: the abolishment of private property as a means to bring about a classless society (in our day and age, this would be called an “anti-racist” society as per critical race theory).
This chapter of the Manifesto includes a call for the abolishment of the family, as families are viewed as a mechanism of exploitation and a means to capitalism’s ends.
The official Black Lives Matter website advocated a number of these classic Marxist ideologies found in Chapter 2 of the Manifesto in their “What We Believe” page, including the goal of “disrupt[ing] the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure.” The page, which has since been taken down by the group, also provided biographies of the movement’s founders, who describe themselves as “trained Marxists.”
3 The Far-Left charges that the term “cultural Marxism” is used by the Far-Right — especially white supremacists — to slander those who believe in the “social justice movement.”
What does cultural Marxism mean for the far right? In the modern iteration, in spaces like Breitbart or Infowars, it is the belief that a failure by communists to topple capitalism through worker revolt has led to a “Plan B” to destroy Western society from the inside. By tearing down the gender binary, de-centering Christianity values, championing the weak over the privileged and creating a multicultural society, revolutionaries have unanchored traditional Western order. Everything from gay rights to Muslim immigration is, in the language of the far right, part of a plot to finish the job that radical worker organizing could not.
Suffice it to say, this is a most paranoid fantasy. Most Marxists don’t speak in these terms, and people who do advocate for immigration, multiculturalism or secularism do so out of a certain regard for human and civil rights. But the far right still obsesses that this is a historical cultural struggle.
This group also points to the fact that Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik invoked “cultural Marxism” in his manifesto. In 2011, Breivik went on a killing spree in which he murdered 77 people, the majority of whom were teenagers at a Workers’ Youth League summer camp.
4 While it would be nice to have a static, agreed-upon definition of “cultural Marxism,” even this would probably not resolve the controversy over the term, considering its antisemitic origins. One solution would be to pivot our use of language around all current discussions of Marxism to the far more specific and accurate phrase “neo-Marxism.”
However, as astutely pointed out by Kit Slater in an essay titled “The Value of Cultural Marxism,” use of the term “neo-Marxism” fails to address the fact that any successful ideological battle must also be fought on the cultural level — with the goal of reaching a kind of “cultural hegemony.”
As Slater explains, cultural hegemony is a concept created by Antonio Gramsci:
“Gramsci theorised that if Communism achieved ‘mastery of human consciousness,’ then active revolution would be unnecessary. Mastery over the consciousness of the great mass of people could be attained if Communists or their sympathisers gained control of the organs of culture – churches, education, newspapers, magazines, the electronic media, literature, music, the visual arts, and so on.
“By winning ‘cultural hegemony,’ Communism would control the deepest wellsprings of human thought and imagination. One need not control all information itself if one can gain control over the minds that assimilate that information …
“In 1967 the West German student movement leader Rudi Dutschke reformulated Gramsci’s philosophy of cultural Marxism with the phrase ‘the long march through the institutions’ of the nation and the state – the church, entertainment, civil service, educational faculties, family institutions and marriage – to replace the dominant culture …
One influential figure in the sixties who understood this theory very well was radical Chicago activist and Marxist ideologue Saul Alinsky. Slater writes about Alinsky’s plan to carry out the transformation of society through community organizers preying on the malcontents of society — a similar situation happening in today’s intersectional victimhood circles.
“The way to do this was through ‘people’s organisations’ composed largely of discontented individuals who believed society was fundamentally unjust, and who would take their lead from trained community organisers. These organisers, taught Alinsky, should “rub raw the resentments of the people” and “agitate to the point of conflict.” His handbook of sedition, Rules for Radicals, was highly influential over the Democratic Party, and is a textbook assiduously followed by Left-wing activists.”
Slater further argues that the subject of cultural Marxism “can’t be explained in full without reference to the Frankfurt School, critical theory, or to post-modernism, all of which relate to cultural manipulation” and are making a comeback today with critical race theory.
“Given that cultural Marxism is the application of Marxist aims to the culture instead of to economics and society,” Slater writes, “‘culture’ is indispensable to its concept. Its anti-Semitic shadow is, like all conspiracies, ideologies and cults, a belief without evidence, and dismisses its perpetuator as someone with a form of locked-in syndrome.”
A love affair with collectivist ideologies has lead to ever bigger government and the welfare-warfare state. Lead by a Marxist splinter group called the “Frankfurt School” — “the long march through the institutions” has infiltrated every corner of Western culture to corrupt traditional Christian values with “political correctness,” another name for “cultural Marxism.”
A James Jaeger Film featuring RON PAUL, Congressman/Presidential Candidate; PAT BUCHANAN, Author/Political Analyst; G. EDWARD GRIFFIN, Author/Producer; EDWIN VIEIRA, Author/Constitutional Attorney and TED BAEHR, Founder of MovieGuide and Christian Film & TV Commission.
The ultimate goal of cultural Marxism is to first destroy American free-enterprise capitalism by undermining its economic engine, the Middle Class and this will lead — they hope — to the destruction of the basic building block of society: the Family Unit.
American Generals Warn: This is How America Falls to Marxism
War Room hosted the patriotic generals who are returning to the fray to warn America is on the brink of falling to Marxism.
Lt. Gen. (Ret.) William G. Boykin taught special operations how to fight Marxist insurgents. Now he’s seeing it happen here.
“This Marxist movement in America is real, you cannot deny it anymore,” he said.
Boykin is among the over 120 flag officers who are warning America must wake up to the fact we are under a communist revolution.
Brig. Gen. Donald C. Bolduc, who is running for U.S. Senate in New Hamsphire, said the Marxist tactics he witnessed overseas are now being deployed here at home.
“I saw the biggest threat to our republic, our democracy, our form of government, everything I fought for,” Bolduc said of the radical movements seizing power in America. “I lost 72 men and women in combat over 10 tours in Afghanistan in 2 years as the special operations commander.
“And the threat was from within,” he said. “And that is how America is going to go down.”
Gen. Boykin said Marxists are implementing the playbook from the 1960s book The Naked Communist.
“They told us exactly what they were going to do,” he said. “They were going to destroy the nuclear family, because the most important fabric of our society is the family. Ultimately they were going to destroy America from within, the same thing we have heard from the jihadists…by infiltrating the institutions of America.
“This is the revolution that Karl Marx talked about.”
Maj. Gen. Gary L. Harrell said, “we’re in serious trouble here.”
“We have not been awake — not woke — awake,” he said. “And that’s why we’re in this mess.”
The solution? Get involved. Gen. Harrell was recently elected party chairman in Washington County in East Tennessee, while Gen. Bolduc is running for senate.
“We need leaders not lemmings,” Bolduc said. “We need a change, we need a big change.”
The question about freedom rolls around again as we celebrate our nations’ Independence Day on the fourth of July.
Normally we take for granted that we can get ourselves up, out of bed, get dressed and off to school or work.
There are many people who through not fault of their own are not able to get out of bed.
Right away people who have been hospitalized because of a heart attack, stroke, or car accident come to mind. They need to be bathed everyday and have all their needs cared for by nurses, nurses’ aids, orderlies, and volunteers. Doctors routinely visit to check on their patients.
One morning you have this overwhelming feeling that you just want to hide under the sheets. You feel as though you can keep the world shut out by staying under the sheets. You know the world around you is continuing at its normal fast pace. Your world has stopped. You have no interest in anything especially eating. I am not talking about sleeping in on a Saturday.
Let’s say this overwhelming feeling goes on for days, this may be a problem for a professional to evaluate. It could be depression. Those who suffer from depression prefer freedom from depression.
Depression has no single cause; often, it results from a combination of things. You may have no idea why depression has struck you or that there is help.
Whatever its cause, depression is not just a state of mind. It is related to physical changes in the brain, and connected to an imbalance of a type of chemical that carries signals in your brain and nerves. These chemicals are called neurotransmitters.
Some of the more common factors involved in depression are:
· Family history. Genetics play an important part in depression. It can run in families for generations.
· Trauma and stress. Things like financial problems, the breakup of a relationship, or the death of a loved one can bring on depression. You can become depressed after changes in your life, like starting a new job, graduating from school, or getting married. Trauma from an abusive situation where one feels trapped and there no way out could cause an enormous amount of stress, anxiety, and/or depression.
· Pessimistic personality. People who have low self-esteem and a negative outlook are at higher risk of becoming depressed. These traits may actually be caused by low-level depression (called dysthymia). These people see a glass half empty.
· Physical conditions. Serious medical conditions like heart disease, cancer, and HIV can contribute to depression, partly because of the physical weakness and stress they bring on. Depression can make medical conditions worse, since it weakens the immune system and can make pain harder to bear. In some cases, depression can be caused by medications used to treat medical conditions.
· Other psychological disorders. Anxiety disorders, eating disorders, schizophrenia, and substance abuse often appear along with depression.
Depression is absolutely treatable, no matter what the cause. Finding the underlying cause or causes can be a matter of trial and error, a process of elimination. Once the cause is found then a treatment plan is made. This plan could include medication. Medications don’t react the same way for all people. Don’t be discouraged if it takes time to find the right medication or dosage. There could be a set of identical twins with the same issues that receive the same amount of medication that could react differently.
It is important to know and listen to your body.
It is also important to know what you put into your body and how those things react with each other. This includes food and medicines. You have probably heard of the phrase garbage in, garbage out, it also applies to your body.
Computers don’t work well with broken, corrupt or competing files, neither does your body.
You have a right to know what you are putting into your body and what is does, ask if you don’t know.
There are support groups for people who suffer from depression or other medical conditions. Talking helps, somehow problems or mountains seem smaller when they are heard by a listening ear.
You could be a listening ear for someone by listening non-judgmentally twice as much as you speak.
Telling someone who suffers from depression to snap out of it is useless. They did not ask to be depressed and would prefer not to be depressed. Yelling at them because they are depressed will only push them away.
If you remember, you catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar. Apply it every day and your stress level will lower, so will those around you and more things will be accomplished. You will have a healing affect and freedom from depression.
By Brandon Showalter, Christian Post Reporter | Tuesday, June 15, 2021
Soldiers walk in front of the Monument to the Foundation of the Workers’ Party in Pyongyang, North Korea April 16, 2017. | REUTERS/Damir Sagolj
A North Korean defector who Christian missionaries helped escape to freedom said attending Columbia University, an Ivy League institution, was crazier, as far as its forced ideology and conformity, than the brutal Kim regime.
Yeonmi Park recounted how she came to the United States to attend Columbia after transferring from a South Korean university in 2016 and was troubled to find a culture of indoctrination, which she detailed in recent interviews about her frustration while pursuing a humanities degree at the prestigious university.
“I expected that I was paying this fortune, all this time and energy, to learn how to think. But they are forcing you to think the way they want you to think,” Park, the author of the bestseller In Order to Live, said in an interview with Fox News.
“I realized, wow, this is insane. I thought America was different, but I saw so many similarities to what I saw in North Korea that I started worrying.”
Park explained that a university staff member antagonized her when she said she enjoyed classic literature and authors like Jane Austen. She recounted the person telling her that such writers had a colonial mindset and were bigots and racists, and their messages were subconsciously brainwashing her.
Similarly, gender issues, specifically as they pertained to language, also took the then-North Korean student by surprise. Each course at the Ivy League school began with students declaring the pronouns by which they prefer to be addressed.
“English is my third language. I learned it as an adult. I sometimes still say ‘he’ or ‘she’ by mistake, and now they are going to ask me to call them ‘they’? How the heck do I incorporate that into my sentences?” she asked.
“It was chaos,” she added. “It felt like the regression in civilization.”
“Even North Korea is not this nuts. … North Korea was pretty crazy, but not this crazy,” Park said, adding that she eventually learned not to say anything after several arguments with professors and students in order to maintain a good GPA and graduate.
The North Korean woman made a grueling journey through Asia to escape what is arguably the most repressive nation in the world. By the time she was 13 years old, she had watched people fall dead due to starvation. At age 13, in 2007, she crossed into China with her mother over the frozen Yalu River where human traffickers captured them and sold them into slavery. She was sold for less than $300, and her mother was sold for $100.
They managed to flee to Mongolia with the assistance of Christian missionaries, traversing across the Gobi desert. Park later found refuge in South Korea. Her 2015 memoir recounts how she survived North Korean oppression and what it took to escape to freedom, which she also shared in a TedTalk in 2013.
In the United States, people “are just dying to give their rights and power to the government. That is what scares me the most,” Park, who now advocates for the human rights of North Koreans, told Fox News.
“In North Korea, I literally believed that my Dear Leader [Kim Jong un] was starving,” she said.
“He’s the fattest guy, how can anyone believe that? And then somebody showed me a photo and said, ‘Look at him, he’s the fattest guy. Other people are all thin.’ And I was like, ‘Oh my God, why did I not notice that he was fat?’ Because I never learned how to think critically.”
“That is what is happening in America,” she stressed. “People see things, but they’ve just completely lost the ability to think critically.”
We, as a nation, enjoy unparalleled freedoms. When other nations were ruled by tyrants, our Founding Fathers established a republican democracy. The Bill of Rights guarantees freedoms not generally granted in the late 18th century – the freedom to worship as one sees fit, the freedom to speak out against the government, the freedom to have a trial by jury of one’s peers. This nation has defended her freedoms through the course of her history – from Lexington and Concord to Gettysburg to Iwo Jima to the deserts of Afghanistan, men and women have bravely fought – and died – for the freedoms of others.
Although we enjoy unparalleled freedom as Americans, the freedom we find in Christ far surpasses our American freedoms. Jesus said that he could provide true freedom: “If the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed” (Jn. 8:36). True freedom can come no other way, except through Jesus. Any freedom outside of Christ is just an illusion, because it’s temporary. The freedoms of this nation – as precious as they are – could be taken away from us. Yet, the freedom we enjoy in Christ can never be taken away.
This morning, we want to examine the freedom we have in Christ.
Christ Makes Us Free from the Law
“Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage” (Gal. 5:1). The Galatian Christians were wanting to go back and keep parts of the Law of Moses – specifically the command to be circumcised. Paul says, “NO! Jesus has made you free from that law. Don ‘t you dare go back.”
Those who lived under the Law were slaves to the Law. Paul affirms this fact.
“But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by” (Rom. 7:6).
“Do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage” (Gal. 5:1).
Peter also affirmed the bondage of the Law – “Why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?” (Acts 15:10).
Why were those who lived under the Law slaves to it?
The Law could not justify (Gal. 3:10-12). The Law could not take a sinner and make him right before God.
The Law could not justify because of the weakness of men: “What the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh” (Rom. 8:3).
The law could not save, because no one could keep it perfectly. No one, regardless of how hard he tried, could keep every single command in the Law. Therefore, he stood condemned before God.
Jesus freed us from the Law. He freed us from the Law because faith in Christ can justify (Gal. 2:15-16). Proper faith in Christ can take one and cause him to stand right before God. Because of his perfection, Jesus can save. “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Heb. 9:14). God needed a perfect, spotless sacrifice to cleanse people from sin. That sacrifice was found in Jesus.
Lest we get the idea that the Law was a failure, we need to comprehend that the Law did perfectly what God intended it to do. The Law served as a “disciplinarian” until Christ came (Gal. 3:24). The disciplinarians guarded boys to and from school – they made sure the boys made it to school safely and they made sure the boys made it safely home. The Law served as a disciplinarian to make sure that the people of Israel came into contact with Jesus.
Therefore, as the disciplinarian, the Law prepared the way for Jesus. The prophets pointed to Jesus. Jesus himself affirmed this: “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill” (Matt. 5:17). “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me” (Jn. 5:39). The Law told us that a Savior was needed. The Law made painfully obvious that a man could not earn his own salvation.
The Law taught us the horrors of sin. Paul affirms this:
“What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made” (Gal. 3:19).
“I would not have known sin except through the law. I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, ‘You shall not covet’” (Rom. 7:7).
In the Old Testament, we see that offerings had to be made for sin. In the Old Testament, we see that sin must be punished. Korah and those with him died for their rebellion (Num 16). Achan and his family died for his disobedience (Josh. 7).
Christ Makes Us Free From the fear of Death
”Through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Heb. 2:14-15).
Jesus destroyed the one who had the power over death. “Death is swallowed up in victory” (1 Cor. 15:54). Human nature is to want to compete and to win – whether we’re playing cards, whether our favorite team is playing basketball, we want to win. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the greatest victory ever known to man.
Jesus came, died, and was resurrected. We, therefore, have no reason to fear death. We have a great deal of apprehension over our deaths – we fear the pain that shall likely accompany our deaths, we dread leaving those we love, we fear the unknown. But, Jesus came so that we would not need to fear death – so that we could know that even if we were to lay aside this house of flesh, we would dwell in the eternal city of God. That is the assurance we have as Christians. That is the basis of our not having fear at the thought of our deaths.
Christ gives us hope because of his own resurrection (1 Cor. 15:20-23).
Christ Makes Us Free from Sin
The Scriptures teach that Christians have been set free from sin.
“And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness” (Rom. 6:18).
John 8:34-36.
Slavery to sin is a real problem. “While they [false teachers] promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage” (2 Pet. 2: 19). Slavery to sin is a real problem, because all people sin (1 Ki. 8:46; 1 Jn. 1:8, 10). Since all people sin, all people are in danger of becoming slaves to sin.
Paul describes this slavery in Romans 7: 14-24. Paul paints a very bleak picture. He cries out, “Wretched man that I am!” The situation seems almost hopeless. He sighs, “Who will rescue me from this body of death?”
But, Paul had hope (Rom. 7:25-8:4). We knew that he could not get out of sin on his own. He had to rely on the victory and freedom which he could have through Christ.
Conclusion
We can have freedom in Christ; Christ wants to make us free. Do you have the freedom which comes through faith in Christ?
This sermon was originally preached by Dr. Justin Imel, Sr., at the Main Street church of Christ in Pikeville, Kentucky.
In case you haven’t noticed, today is the 4th of July. It is the day when our nation celebrates its birth and when we appreciate the qualities that have made the United States of America the unique country that it is today. Besides fireworks, lakes, and cookouts, when most people think of the fourth of July, the one thing that likely comes to mind is freedom. Freedom is perhaps the central, founding principle of our nation. Freedom is what Independence Day is all about. Freedom continues to be at the heart of what it means to be an American. To be an American is to be a free person. Quite simply, to be in America is to know a lot about freedom. We are surrounded by it, live in it, hear about it, and appreciate it. We have holidays like the 4th of July to celebrate it. But freedom is a word that also should strike at us for a different reason. We are Christians, and freedom is also something that is central to our faith. In fact, Martin Luther once wrote a treatise called “On the Freedom of a Christian.” In this treatise, he says this:
A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant, subject to all.
He spends the rest of the treatise defending these two seemingly contradictory statements. Basically what he says, and this is very basic, is that Jesus Christ frees us from the slavery of good works. We are not justified by works, but we are justified only by faith in Jesus Christ. Because of that, we are completely free people, not under any sort of law that we must keep in order to earn salvation. Luther says that we are freed from the belief in good works, justification through works. And in this way we are freed from the law. But we are not set free from doing good works. No, Luther says that good works are imperative for the Christian. We must do good works because we are still people who live in this world of flesh and bones. He compares it to food. Perhaps some of you are getting hungry already. Does anyone think that we can exist without food and drink? Absolutely not! But do food and drink justify us before God! Absolutely not! The same is the case with good works. We do not need them for justification, but we shouldn’t dismiss them, either, just like we would not dismiss eating this afternoon on account of the fact that we are already saved by grace alone through faith. If you will go home and eat, then you should also commit yourselves to doing good works. So, a Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none, and a Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant, subject to all.
I think that this sort of paradox is a good thing to keep in mind as we are considering our scripture texts from today on this 4th of July when freedom is at the forefront of our minds. Just because we have been granted certain freedoms does not mean that for us as Christians, that we should exercise them at all times. In our gospel lesson for today Jesus is sending out the disciples two by two to proclaim a message: “The Kingdom of God is near!” We have joint citizenship. We are citizens of the United States of America, but we are also citizens of the City of God. But we are most importantly citizens of the City of God.
As Americans, the ultimate document of freedom for us could likely be considered the Bill of Rights. It outlines what freedoms we have which cannot be revoked. I want to look at some freedoms that are granted to us as citizens of America and compare that with our scripture lessons today.
The 5th amendment says, “No person shall be… deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.” In this amendment we are guaranteed the right to keep our own property. All of the things that we have worked hard for are ours. No one else has a right to them. The luxuries that have been afforded by our own hard work cannot be taken from us at a whim. No, in America we are free to keep things for ourselves. We are free to take care of ourselves.
To this, hear these words of Jesus from the Gospel of Luke: “3Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. 4Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road.” Jesus tells the seventy-two to lay down all of the things that they have earned for themselves. All of the things that would be helpful for traveling: things like money and a change of clothes, Jesus says to put those things away. For the disciples, they have a different kind of freedom: freedom from property.
The First Amendment guarantees Americans more freedoms, one of them is the freedom of speech. Part of it states: “Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech.” This is the law that allows us to hold opinions and express them without interference. If we want to speak against our government, we are promised the freedom to do so. Of course, it also protects our right to say things that are vile and indecent. It is this freedom which allows pornography to run rampant on the internet.
Does the Christian have freedom of speech? The apostle Paul says this in our lesson from Galatians today in verse 14: “14May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” For the apostle Paul, there are restrictions posed on Christian speech. We are to boast not of ourselves, our accomplishments, our children, even our church, but we are only to boast in the cross of Jesus Christ. When you think about it, what else is there to talk about? What else is there to boast about? The law of Christ frees us from shallow, empty speech in order that we may speak of things that matter, in order that we can speak of the cross.
The last freedom I want to look at is the freedom of religion, again in the first amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. Again we turn to the apostle Paul in Galatians to see what he has to say about our ability to exercise religion freely. In verse two he says: “2Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” Put simply, Paul says that we are not free to practice our religion however we want. He says that there is a very specific way to practice our faith: to bear one another’s burdens. Paul says that this fulfills the highest law in the land, law that is higher than even the Constitution of the United States: the law of Christ. And what is the law of Christ? In a word: love. We can find no deeper, no more robust practice of love than when we bear the burdens of one another. The law of Christ frees us from selfishness in order that we may experience the joy that can only be found in deep, meaningful relationships, relationships that are not afraid to share burdens with one another.
Many of you know that a member of our church, Gerry Seefeldt, passed away Friday morning. Pastor Joel would normally attend to the family during this time, but obviously he was out of town. Pastor Ryan Mills from Our Redeemer in Grand Prairie told Joel that he would provide pastoral care should it be needed while he was away. Thursday morning I got the call that Gerry was getting very ill and there wouldn’t be much time left. The family requested a pastor to come pray with Gerry and the family in those last hours. So, I called Pastor Ryan. I could have simply told him about the situation and let him handle it. I’m quite untrained in what to do in these situations. I haven’t had much experience with death, and I didn’t think I would be much help. But for some reason I thought that I should go, so I offered to accompany him. I’m glad I went. I saw what it means to bear one another’s burdens while I was with Gerry’s family. Ryan and I went and saw Gerry and Pastor Ryan led us in prayer and scripture reading. We closed with the Lord’s Prayer. One of Gerry’s daughter said that when we were praying the Lord’s Prayer with her that Gerry prayed with us as loud and as clear as she had said anything in the last few days. And then the next morning, Friday, I got the phone call that Gerry had passed away. So for the second time in as many days, Pastor Ryan and I both dropped what we were doing to attend to Gerry and her family. We entered the home, spoke with the family, and prayed again over Gerry’s body and helped the family to say goodbye to their mother. It was a holy moment.
Were Pastor Ryan and I free to do whatever we wanted with our life and with our time on Thursday and Friday? Absolutely not. We were bound by the law of Christ to bear the emotional burden of this death in Gerry’s family. But Pastor Ryan and I would not have it any other way. Were we free to do whatever we wanted? No. But we were free to love this family in their time of grief. It is because of the bond of Christ that we were free to go into a home filled with people whom we had never met and share those moments with them.
The freedom of Christ is like that. It closes some doors in order that we may experience true freedom. My time was not my own this past weekend in order that I could be free to fulfill the law of Christ. We are not free to say anything that we want to say, but we are bound only to boast in the cross of Jesus Christ, because when you get right down to it, anything else is not speech, but just shadows of reality, just wasted breath. We are freed by Jesus Christ to true speech. And the freedom of Jesus Christ frees us from our possessions. So often our possessions own us. The law of Christ helps us lay everything down, to take no purse or bag or sandals with us, but to experience true freedom from the things that occupy so much of our time and energy.
Just as Jesus was very God and had all the rights and privileges of God, he laid them down for our sake (Phil 2). So we too have been afforded many great rights as citizens in the kingdom of America. But there are times when we must lay down our rights and lay down our freedoms, in order that we may be truly free. We serve the king of kings, the president of presidents. And when we are truly free we can say with the Psalmist and all peoples of the earth today:
Psalm 66:
1 Be joyful in God, all you lands;
sing the glory of his name; sing the glory of his praise.
2 Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds!
Because of your great strength your enemies cringe before you.
3 All the earth bows down before you,
sings to you, sings out your name.”
4 Come now and see the works of God,
how wonderful he is in his doing toward all people.
5 He turned the sea into dry land, so that they went through the water on foot,
and there we rejoiced in him.
6 In his might he rules forever; his eyes keep watch over the nations;
Excerpt from Thomas Sowell’s “Black Rednecks & White Liberals”. Thomas Sowell: born June 30, 1930, is an American economist, turned social theorist, political philosopher, and author.
Dr. Thomas Sowell is probably one of the most brilliant minds alive in America. In a series of long essays, It presents eye-opening insights into the historical development of the ghetto culture that is today wrongly seen as a unique black identity–a culture cheered on toward self-destruction by white liberals who consider themselves “friends” of blacks. This essay titled “The Real History of Slavery” presents a jolting re-examination of that tragic institution and the narrow and distorted way it is too often seen today. The reasons for the venomous hatred of Jews, and of other groups like them in countries around the world, are explored in an essay that asks, “Are Jews Generic?” Misconceptions of German history in general, and of the Nazi era in particular, are also re-examined. So too are the inspiring achievements and painful tragedies of black education in the United States. “Black Rednecks and White Liberals” is the capstone of decades of outstanding research and writing on racial and cultural issues by Thomas Sowell.
He is currently Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. Sowell was born in North Carolina but grew up in Harlem, New York. He dropped out of high school and served in the United States Marine Corps during the Korean War. He received a bachelor’s degree, graduating magna cum laude[6] from Harvard University in 1958 and a master’s degree from Columbia University in 1959. In 1968, he earned his Doctorate in Economics from the University of Chicago.
Sowell has served on the faculties of several universities, including Cornell University and the University of California, Los Angeles. He has also worked for think tanks such as the Urban Institute. Since 1980, he has worked at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He writes from a conservative libertarian perspective, advocating supply-side economics. Sowell has written more than thirty books (some which have been reprinted in revised editions), and his work has been widely anthologized. He is a National Humanities Medal recipient. Sowell is both a syndicated columnist and an academic economist, whose column was distributed by Creators Syndicate. Themes of Sowell’s writing range from social policy on race, ethnic groups, education, and decision-making, to classical and Marxist economics, to the problems of children perceived as having disabilities.
A Marxist black man in his twenties, while often described as a black conservative, he prefers not to be labeled, having stated, “I prefer not to have labels, but I suspect that ‘libertarian’ would suit me better than many others, although I disagree with the libertarian movement on a number of things”. He primarily writes on economic subjects, generally advocating a free market approach to capitalism. Dr.Sowell opposes the Federal Reserve, arguing that it has been unsuccessful in preventing economic depressions and limiting inflation.
Dr.Sowell also writes on racial topics and is a critic of affirmative action and race-based quotas. On the topic of affirmative action, Sowell has stated it’s “one of the few policies that can be said to harm virtually every group differently. Obviously, whites and Asians lose out when you have preferential admission for black students or Hispanic students—but blacks and Hispanics lose out because what typically happens is the students who have all the credentials to succeed in college are admitted to colleges where the standards are so much higher that they fail.” He takes strong issue with the notion of government as a helper or savior of minorities, arguing that the historical record shows quite the opposite.
NO PARAGRAPH CAN DO JUSTICE TO A MAN WHO HAS WRITTEN OVER 30 BOOKS ON ECONOMICS, SOCIETY, POLITICS & RACE, but here goes. Thomas Sowell is an American original free-thinker, PhD economist, political philosopher and author who approaches the world with a practical logic honed as a Marxist in his 20’s and refined in a conservative, libertarian with a Harvard, Columbia, University of Chicago pedigree all of which is built on a North Carolina Black South and New York Harlem upbringing.
July 4th comes every year. The actual events and documents which gave us Independence Day on July 4th don’t change. There is a current movement afoot which seeks to delete facts and history and replace it with a disturbingly negative story. This disturbingly negative story seeks to install their propaganda at every level of education, major media outlets, big corporations, and the military.
Our military will no longer be an efficient cohesive combination of various size, shapes, colors, and backgrounds of people under this disturbingly negative story. Simply put in a foxhole when enemy rounds are incoming the real care is that those in the foxhole have each others back. If the disturbingly negative story were implemented in the military members of the military would not trust each other and the enemy would overrun our military. We’d be defeated from within. (1)
The governing document of our country is shorter than many contracts, has no fine print and easy to read, see (2).The Constitution of the United States is the foundational document of our American Government. It lays out the system of Government and the limits what our government may and may not do. Some say the Constitution lists the rights of the American people. Our Rights come from God not the government. It is the people who establish the government and grant certain powers to their representatives and government to act in their stead.
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America”
A little spoken of Amendment to the Constitution, number Nine, supports the power is retained by the people.
“The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”
The War of Independence against British was fought to free Americans from the tyranny of the British Monarchy who arbitrarily imposed rules, laws, regulations, and edicts without consultation or consent of the governed.
Americans endured an oppressive form of government under the British and formed a bottom up form of government, a Constitutional Republic. Oppressive governments rule by fear, fear they may displease the ruler. Fear, anxiety, depression, and suicide run rampant under oppressive governments. Summary executions with due process become common under oppressive governments.
The Constitution has three parts. The Preamble tells the purpose of the document and Government. The Articles set up how the Government is organized and how the Constitution can be changed. The Amendments are changes to the Constitution. The First Ten Amendments are called the Bill of Rights.
Any laws which violate the Constitution are void, can not be enforced, because they are UnConstitutional. The Constitution can not be changed by legislative or executive fiat.
Refuse to be bullied into the disturbingly negative story.
The Constitution and Bible when correctly applied are recipes for Freedom, Liberty, tranquility for all and Independence.
Psalms 33:12 — Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.
HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!
AS WE CELEBRATE THIS NATION’S 245TH BIRTHDAY, WE NEED TO LOOK AT OUR HERITAGE AS A NATION AND REMEMBER HOW GOD HAS PROSPERED AND PROTECTED US.
There are 3 things we need to consider:
We must never forget how God has blest America in the past.
We must see what God is doing for America in the present.
We must realize what God will doto America in the future.
1. WE NEED TO RECOGNIZE WHAT GOD HAS DONE FOR AMERICA
– First: America exists because God raised it up and plays a prominentrole in her existence.
He was revered in the first colonies – In Jamestown, Virginia. The first community building was a church, the only building with a wall still standing today.
The 1st thing the Puritans did at Plymouth Rock was kneel, praise God and dedicate their new colony.
Roger Williams (Baptist Minister) established Rhode Island.
Lord Baltimore held church services when establishing Maryland.
William Penn (Quaker) established Pennsylvania, NY, DEL, Conn, NC, SC, Georgia.
– When you read their writings there’s no doubt God birthed America.
William Penn in writing government policies for Pennsylvania made sure “all treasurers, judges, and all elected officials professed faith in Christ.”
Of course this history isn’t taught in our schools today because the heathen History Revisionists want to defame our history and divorce God from all that has been done in the past.
My how far we’ve fallen! 18 years ago The U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with a Federal trial court that the Ten Commandments memorial placed in the rotunda of The Alabama Judicial Building by State Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore must be removed.
Judge Moore authorized the memorial to remind us Biblical laws stand as the moral groundwork of American law — He was removed from the Alabama Supreme Court.
I guess we want to be careful not to upset young people by telling them not to kill, steal, or commit adultery! We might hamper their activities and upset their fragile psyches!
Our Founding Fathers consistently used the Bible and Judeo-Christian values to define and preserve this nation:
– 12 of the original 13 colonies incorporated the entire 10 Commandments into their civil and criminal codes.
President John Adams said, “The law given from Sinai was a civil and municipal code as well as a moral and religious code. These are laws essential to the existence of men in society and most of which have been enacted by every Nation which ever professed any code of laws. Vain indeed would be the search among the writings of secular history to find so broad, so complete and so solid a basis of morality as the Ten Commandments lay down.”
Contrast that with Joe Biden and Kamala Harrisin the White House today promoting such ungodly programs as abortion and same-sex marriage, and wide-open borders allowing who knows what into our nation!
Did you know The American Bible Society was started by an act of Congress and John Adams, our 2nd President, served as its 1st leader?
Our laws are based on The 10 Commandments and sound Bible principles.
– The Supreme Court Building – built 1935 – has Moses and 10 Commandments carved right on the front of it.
– It’s too bad the Justices must enter back way!
In the House of Representatives a sculpture of Moses is across the Speaker’s seat.
– Think how proud Moses must be to share a seat with Nancy Pelosi!
President George Washington: “It is impossible to govern the world without God and the Bible. Of all dispositions and habits that lead to political prosperity, our religion and morality are indispensable supporters.”
In 1782, the U.S. Congress voted a resolution recommending and approving the use of the Bible in the schools.
The Bible was the first reader for children.
The Bible was taught in the classroom until 1963. — Madilyn Murray
Henry Laurens, 4th president of the Continental Congress, said, “I had the honor of being one who framed the Constitution. In order effectually to accomplish these great constitutional ends, it is especially the duty of those who bear rule to promote and encourage respect for God and virtue.”
Patrick Henry, 1st Governor of Virginia and a member of the Continental Congress, said, “It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
The Constitution ends by pointing back to Jesus: “in the year of our Lord.” – Our Nation’s motto: “In God we trust” – Pledge “One Nation under God” God birthed America, but America has slipped so far away from our roots…
God Blessed America! We’ve compromised and are losing His Blessing!
American history has tons of stories of God’s miraculous intervention in times of crisis, but most history books are written by humanists who deliberately edit true facts out of textbooks.
In the Revolutionary War, British Commander William Howe was moving 30,000 British soldiers to take New York.
– General George Washington only had 18,000 inexperienced troops. It was 1776.
– The British troops outflanked Washington.
– Washington lost 1,000 men and 2 top Generals.
– Washington’s troops were cold, hungry, and discouraged.
Without any reason the British halted their troops.
– Had they pressed on they would’ve destroyed Washington’s troops.
– Washington’s army was trapped on Long Island and the only escape route was the treacherous East river.
– The weather was very bad — it seemed impossible to cross.
Washington called for a prayer meeting to ask for God’s guidance and help.
– It was decided to try to cross river.
– It was storming — suddenly at 11 pm the wind died and the rain stopped.
The river became as smooth as glass.
– As the little Army started crossing a gentle breeze came up behind them to push them along.
Even with this miracle it’d still be impossible to get all troops across to Manhattan Island before daybreak.
– Just before daybreak, a thick fog formed over them hiding them from the British.
When fog lifted British Commander Howe was shocked — Washington’s troops had escaped!
– Washington and his men recognized God’s blessings on America.
There are so many more stories of how God used the weather and other circumstances to help our military to gain victory. He used weather in the invasion of Normandy on D-day in world war II.
Don’t take our freedom for granted. We’ve not all paid the same price.
– Allen Star erected a monument in Arkansas to the 241 servicemen killed in bombing of Marine headquarters in Lebanon.
– With $2000 and used bricks he built 8X4 ft monument with bronze plaque that says, “Lest we forget that peace has a price.”
As you celebrate the 4th of July remember your freedom isn’t free – just ask a parent who lost a son in a war.
– Ask a child who lost a father.
– Ask a man who lost a leg, arm, his sight, or was injured for life.
What has God done? Birthed America and Blessed America.
2. WHAT GOD IS DOING FOR AMERICA right now is Beholding America
– He sees how far we’ve fallen in the 245 years since our birth in 1776.
He sees all the sin and corruption of our sexually promiscuous society.
He sees the 62 million babies aborted for the convenience of women and men who want to play around but don’t want the responsibility for their actions.
He sees the drunkenness and drug addictions destroying lives today.
He sees the violence and murders occurring daily in this once God-fearing nation.
He sees the perversion of gay life-styles, sex changes, the Critical Race Theory, the accusations of “White Supremacy.”
God is totally aware of how wicked and rebellious we have become!
He sees the crookedness, lying and cheating in our politics and elections.
He sees a belligerent nation that has forgotten its roots and is completely out of control.
Because He knew this was coming He inspired the Apostle Paul to write 2nd Timothy 3:1-7 over 2000 years ago: “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. 2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. 6 For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, 7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
In God’s eyes are we better to Him or bitter toward Him?
– How long will God continue to bless America?
– Someone will say, “Well, we’re a religious country!”
RELIGION ISN’T THE ANSWER
Psalm 9:17 — The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.
AMERICA HAS FORGOTTEN GOD!
Today we have more churches than ever. More corruption, hypocrisy in government and like I said, more churches than ever!
– Where’s God in all this?
We must have a National Revival if we hope to survive!
In our history, every time the Nation had strayed too far, God sent Revival to put us back on course.
A blog written by Patrick Morley, outlines the seasons of revival in this country.
The Great Awakening, 1734-43
The 2nd Great Awakening, 1800-1840
The Businessmen’s Revival, 1857-58
The Civil War Revival, 1861-65
The Urban Revivals, 1875-85
The Welsh Revival, 1904-06
The Azusa Street Revival, 1906
The Post-World War II Awakening
The Charismatic Renewal and Jesus Movement
The Mid-1990’s Revivals
There have been no signs of a Spiritual Awakening in our Nation in this century! The Nation has become more and more corrupt and a sure candidate for God’s Judgment to fall on us:
Psalm 9:17 — The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God. AMERICA HAS FORGOTTEN GOD!
This modern generation has never experienced a revival so they don’t know what they’re missing or what to look for!
Christians need to pray for a God anointed, Heaven sent Revival!
2 Chronicles 7:14 — If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
Each revival or awakening leaves its own heat signature; in 1740 youth led the way, in 1857 businessmen and prayer took center stage, and the 1906 Azusa Street Revival was decidedly interracial. Yet all share common themes. What are the most frequently mentioned characteristics of revivals and awakenings in literature?
Timing: Revivals emerge during time of spiritual and moral decline, which leads to intense prayer.
Prayer: God puts a longing into the hearts of many to pray for revival.
The Word: The preaching or reading of God’s Word brings deep conviction and desire for Christ.
The Holy Spirit: The Holy Spirit takes people to a spiritual depth they could not achieve on their own.
Conviction: Affected sinners are inconsolable except in Christ.
Glory for God: God receives praise, honor, and glory for bringing revival.
Reformation and Renewal: Revival produces lasting fruit. New ministries are founded and society experiences a reform of morals as more and more people convert.
Manifestations: Manifestations like fainting, groaning prayer, and miracles vary by culture and denomination.
Messy: Revivals are messy-controversies swirl about miracles, abuses, excesses, suspicions, and theological disputes (to name a few).
Cyclical: Revivals inevitably crest and decline.
In Jesus’ day the world was a whole lot like ours.
– Governments and churches were corrupt — People were lost!
– John 14:6— “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life…”
Today our world’s so messed up that people joke about Christ’s Invitation.
– The many false rapture predictions haven’t helped……….
– But Jesus is the Way — He’s speaking to lost people.
Of all the religions in the world how do we know Jesus is the Way?
– When it comes to Eternal life, Confucius is dead, Mohammed is dead, only Jesus claimed and proved victory over sin, death, hell, and grave.
If you’ve lost direction or purpose then follow Jesus because He is the Way.
– Jesus is the Truth! — He’s speaking to educated people.
– The world teaches there are no absolutes. Jesus says there is.
There’s a big lie too many have swallowed: It doesn’t matter what you believe about God as long as you’re sincere and it helps you.
– Listen! Your belief doesn’t create truth.
Truth is true whether you believe it or not.
– What you must do is check out your belief and see that it’s the Truth.
Jesus is the Life—He’s speaking to Longing people:
– The bottom line is – people are looking for something worth living for. – I John 5:12 “He that hath the Son hath Life…”
Why are people lost?
– They haven’t come to the Way of Jesus
Why are people not finding Truth? – Why are people not living a real life? — Instead of just existing?
America’s the land where anyone can hear the Gospel.
– You’re greatly privileged.
– God’s watching what you do with all your privileges.
– What will you do with Jesus?
3. WHAT IS GOD GOING TO DO TO AMERICA?
Bible teaches that – God will Blame America.
History’s filled with the wreckage of nations that forgot God. – Romans 14:12“So then every one of us must give an account.”
When you stand before God and He asks you “Why should I let you into My Heaven?” How will you answer?
If we took a survey asking people on the street and in most churches, “How many plan to burn in hell forever?”
– No one with any sense is planning to burn in Hell forever.
– If I ask how many of you are born again for sure?
– Not all of you would raise your hands.
When are you planning on getting right with God? God says, 2 Corinthians 6:2— For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)
Hebrews 2:3–How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; July 4, is when we celebrate our independence and freedom!
If you want to celebrate real freedom, give your life to Jesus!
John 8:36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
This is your day of liberation or a day you will be forever judged for rejecting Jesus Christ.
HAPPY FOURTH! REMEMBER, IT’S MORE THAN HOT DOGS, COKE OR PEPSI, AND APPLE PIE!
