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We should carefully take in the words of the Father of our country, George Washington. 
In his first inaugural address he stated words of such wisdom that they should sober and inspire every one of us who are Americans. If heeded, they will inspire us to become an instrument in the hands of Almighty God for the good of our children and the entire earth.
Just after Washington took the oath of office to defend and uphold the newly written Constitution of the United States, he spoke these words of wisdom:
“We ought to be no less persuaded that the…smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained; …the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered as…perhaps finally, staked [with] the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people….” Continue reading
By now it was noon, and a strange thing began to happen. The sky began to darken with an eerie blackness. For a few brief moments, the air was so still it seemed to choke you as the darkness deepened. Then the earth began to tremble. Lightning bolts were exploding against the ground. Then, unexpectedly, the voice of Jesus pierced the darkness. In a loud, wrenching voice Jesus cried out,
seen—Jesus suddenly breaks in with another statement. As He looks down from the cross, He sees His mother standing there beside one of His most devoted followers, whose name is John. Looking into the eyes of His mother with those amazing eyes of peace, He says, “Woman, behold your son.” (John 19:26-27) Then looking into the face of the youthful John, He says, “Behold, your mother!” Thus, He has fulfilled His last earthly obligation. Being the oldest son in the family, it is His responsibility to see that His mother is cared for in her latter years. He is dying, thus, He gives her to a trusted friend (and John fulfilled that obligation). Watching all of this, the soldier is becoming more convinced that Jesus is Who He says He is. And if He is God’s Son, then that fact demands He be listened to. If He was God’s Son, then He would be right about everything. And if there was only one God and He sent His Son to earth to be a man that would prove He cared about us. If this was true, the Creator was evidently trying to communicate something to us humans. What could it be?
blood of its Creator.
hardest part of this hideous work would be done. One more…
increase is an encouraging sign for our area. I hope it indicates that parents may be waking up to what the real effect of humanistic education is—confusion. The battle over whether men can be in women’s bathrooms is now rampant. It is irrefutable evidence that when you leave God out of the education curriculum and methodology the end result is confusion! The Bible names the world system “Babylon”. The word Babylon literally means “confusion” (just one more time when the Bible is proven to be exactly right!). Because we have, more and more, left Biblical education in the last 80 years, we are reaping the confusion we’ve sown in America.
Jesus has just received the tremendous beating with a whip called a “cat o’ nine tails”, so named for the ripping effect it had on bare skin. In His heart Jesus now cries to His Father for strength to get up and finish this course. By a miracle he struggles to His feet and stands woozily, trying to regain His sense of balance. The soldier points commandingly to the cross prepared for Him. Jesus staggers to it, drops to one knee and—embraces the crude, wooden structure destined to bring Him to death. Straining to rise, He lifts the cross and begins to stagger in His weakness out into the street. Dragging His instrument of death, He sets His course for a hill outside of Jerusalem known as Golgotha, “the place of the skull”. The hill was so named because from a distance it bears some resemblance to the side view of a human skull. As if prophetically named, it would be the place Jesus’ head would finally hang in death.
While feeling the intense pressure, Jesus is doing what He has done all through His life—He is, with each new attack, turning to the Father and, in His heart, is drinking in the Father’s life. That life has strength and sanity in it, which preserves Him throughout this horrendous night. Make no mistake about it. When those accusations first hit His mind, He felt the same as you do when the enemy is attacking your mind. He felt the blows to His body just like you would feel them. The difference was that, as soon as He felt them, He would—in that instant—look to the Father for another drink of His strength, His life that flows as a river from the throne of God (Revelation 22:1). This was the way He had always lived, and He was showing us now, in the very worst mental and physical suffering, that we could still drink of the River of Life—indeed, we could have it flowing through us so that God’s life could also be viewed in us.
pounded into His head. And while everything in His body and mind told Him to run away from tomorrow, something deep in His spirit witnessed that He must submit to this death—that He must trust when He couldn’t see. And ultimately, though deserted by those closest to Him in this darkest hour of need, He chose what He had always chosen: To do the will of God. He chose to not just submit to, but embrace the will of His Father. And when He did, strength came. A special messenger from the Father appeared and touched Him, releasing strength into His weakened body and embattled mind. Now, though He had sweat blood due to the emotional pressure, His body felt much better. His mind was now at peace, as always comes with a surrender to the will of God. Joy—small, but strong—began to course through His being. He was now ready. And the time had come.
cross, His disciples weren’t thinking about His long-range mission: They were too busy enjoying the recognition they were receiving from the crowds from being associated with Jesus. They were “flying high”! But Jesus had not come to cater to our selfish desires. He would not play the world’s game of trying to build our own self-image by gaining the acceptance of others—neither will He allow His followers to do it. He must bring these disciples to the awakening of who they really were, of why they were here on this earth. All this “acceptance” would shortly meet an abrupt end.
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