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Samuel Adams, the Father of our American Revolution, stated,
“Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he is not making a present…to please an individual—or at least that he ought not so to do; but that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country.”
(Samuel Adams, The Writings of Samuel Adams, Harry Alonzo Cushing, editor (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1907), Vol. IV, p. 256, in the Boston Gazette on April 16, 1781.)
Why did America’s Founders teach that voting was so important? First of all, they believed that the Bible taught it. Indeed, in Genesis 1:26, where God tells why He made man, one of His three reasons was that man might “have dominion.” “Having dominion” means, first of all, that we rule over our own desires. We call this “internal self-government” (America’s Founders often called it “virtue”). But that internal self-government must be allowed to grow out into the culture. We must also “take dominion” in the institutions of the culture. I refer to the home, the church, and civil government—for those are the three structural institutions by which God builds every nation. If we do not lead in those institutions then those who do not know and walk in the truth of the Scripture will lead; they will “take dominion” and lead us Continue reading
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.
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.
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