“Alive – Part 3”

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Jesus had been dead three days.  Some of the women who had followed Him came to His tomb early and had found the stone door rolled away and His body gone!  They had told His disciples, and Peter and John had come to the grave site and seen for themselves that His body was gone.  But now the others had left and only Mary Magdalene remained.  It is here we pick up the story from the book, Why God Birthed America

1Alive--Part 3“Mary did not want to leave.  She stood there a few steps from the entrance to the grave, trying to sort out all that had happened.  The angels had said He was alive.  Jesus Himself had told them He would come back to life.  But could that really be?  She moved closer to the entrance.  Questions were flying through her mind.  Could He really be alive again?

She didn’t know how long she stood there lost in thought.  But as she put her head on the doorway and wept, she was instantly blinded with light!  There they were again!  The two shining creatures she and the other women had seen earlier!  They looked at her with compassion.

‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ they asked.

‘Because they’ve taken away my Lord and I don’t know where they’ve put Him,’ she wailed.  She turned her head away, having no stamina which could Continue reading

“Patrick’s Breastplate”

"Think About It" - Heritage Ministries of Kentucky

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It has been said of Patrick, the great missionary to Ireland during the 400s, he “found Patrick's Breastplate1Ireland all heathen and left it all Christian”.  And while, no doubt, that statement is not completely true, it, no doubt, has much truth in it because Patrick was used of God powerfully in converting the Irish to Christ and helping them structure their government so that it would protect for centuries the right to share the Gospel of Christ with the next generation.  Patrick’s understanding and submission to God brought tremendous power from the Holy Spirit to his life.  You hear his understanding of God and this world God created and controls in what is known as Patrick’s Breastplate.  Hear the power of God in it!  He states:

“I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through the belief in the threeness,
Through the confession of the oneness
Of the Creator of Creation

“I arise today
Through the strength of Christ’s birth with his baptism,
Through the strength of his crucifixion with his burial,
Through the strength of his resurrection with his ascension,
Through the strength of his descent for the Judgment Day. Continue reading

“Amos’ Call to Repentance”

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The message of judgment for sins has always been unpopular with those who want to run their own lives.  It still is.  But the fact remains:  No matter how much we try to put off or forget judgment, it will still occur, right on schedule—both in this world and the next. Judgment for rebellion is no pleasant thought when the Judge is a just God who keeps a very detailed, specific record of every thought and every action we’ve ever known.  The prophet Amos warned the northern kingdom of Israel that impending doom was near.  He had cried out,

Amos' Call to Repentance1“Woe to them that are at ease in Zion…that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near; That lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock…That chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of music…That drink wine in bowls, and…are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. Therefore now shall they go captive with the first that go captive…The Lord GOD hath sworn by himself…therefore will I deliver up the city with all that is therein…For, behold, the LORD …will smite the great house with breaches…for ye have turned judgment into gall…behold, I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel, saith the LORD the God of hosts; and they shall afflict you…”

(Amos 6: 1-14)

But Israel scoffed at Amos’ words.  In spite of increasing disease and frightful storms, the nation still didn’t really think these were “the beginning of sorrows”.  They thought “somebody will get a handle on this economy…someone will come up with a cure for this rampant disease.”  (Sounds like our sexually transmitted diseases, like AIDS, doesn’t it?)  “After all,” they said Continue reading

“Alive – Part 1”

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The three days after Jesus was crucified were days of painful reflection for His 1alive-part-1disciples, both personally and as a group.  They were desperately trying to make sense of the recent events which had ended in Jesus’ death.  They were now afraid they may have been wrong about Him being the Promised One.  All the while, they were fearful of what the next opening of the door might bring.  They were afraid to go out, but afraid to stay in.  They were simply—afraid!  Each day passed in tearful grief and painful questionings.  As the weekly Sabbath day came to a close, their questions were no more answered than they had been three days ago when they watched Him die.  Oh, why had He died?

One of their group, Mary Magdalene, was just as uncertain as the rest.  However, the love in her grateful heart would not be denied:  Not by questionings or by fears.  Jesus had set her free from a wretched life of bondage to sexual sin and the torture of evil spirits (Luke 8:2).  He had changed her!  She had never been the same since that day she met Him, and her gratitude of duty now compelled her to go to the tomb and anoint His body with spices, which time had not allowed on the day He died.

Though it was still mostly dark, she gathered her spices and started to make her way to the tomb.  Some of the other women fell into step with her, but Mary was Continue reading

“The Epic Battle – Part 8”

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Now the end was near.  Jesus’ breathing on the Cross was so labored those watching expected death to come at any moment.  But then, in an unmistakable voice of triumph, 1the-epic-battle-part-8Jesus cried out, “It…is…finished!” (John 19:30)  The words rang with victory, with accomplishment!  It was as if His perspective on this whole ordeal was that a work was being done.  The tone of His voice spoke of completing something that had been planned from eternity past.  The books were now balanced!  He had paid man’s debt to God:  That debt of one perfect life which man had incurred in Eden when he used, for selfish purposes, the perfect life God had loaned him.  Jesus’ perfect life had been offered up as a sacrifice to God to pay man’s debt.  The work was now accomplished!  (Colossians 2:13-15)

A few moments later, Jesus uttered His last words from the cross.  Focused on the Father, He was heard to say, “Father, into Your hands, I commit My spirit.”  (Luke 23:46)  Though His body was weakened beyond exhaustion, the words rung distinctly with inexhaustible faith!  He was entering death, but He was believing the promise recorded in Psalm 22 that God would not leave Him in death.  The vision of God would be accomplished in Him!  With these last words Continue reading

“Choose Whom You Will Serve”

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Joshua called together the leaders of Israel and challenged them to finish the work of establishing the Jews in the Promised Land.  He admonished them,

choose-whom-you-will-serve1“…choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served…or the gods of the Amorites…but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”

(Joshua 24:15)

The nations around them worshipped (through their idols, Psalm 106:37) a god—satan—which produced a dictator for their civil government.  God, our true Creator, had given to the Jews, through Moses, a government where the people chose their rulers through elections.  The first form of government enslaved the people to their king, the dictator; God’s form of government enslaved the government servants to the people, the citizens, giving to the people in government only specifically written powers which they could exercise over them (we call that a “Constitution”).  The nations around them had a dictatorship for their form of government; the Jews had a republic for their form of government.  And the Jews experienced, through their republic, more liberty and justice for their citizens than any nation had ever experienced up unto that time.

This is one of the things that makes voting such an important act.  We will always be choosing more enslavement or Continue reading

“Biblical Voting”

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biblical-voting1Samuel 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

“Americans Are the Guardians of Liberty”

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We should carefully take in the words of the Father of our country, George Washington.  americans-are-the-guardians-of-liberty1In 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

“The Epic Battle – Part 7”

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Why did the Roman soldier beneath Jesus’ Cross feel afraid to face God at the Judgement?  He may, just then, have realized the repentant thief had the answer.  “We, indeed, suffer justly,” the thief had said.  That was it:  We were wrong!  Doing things the way we wanted was not right after all!  It was our Creator’s right to tell us—His creation—how to live.  After all, only then would we know how to fulfill His purpose for us.  We were guilty of “insubordination”!  This a soldier could understand.

1the-epic-battle-part-7By 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,

“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me!”

(Matthew 27:46)

The level of emotional pain expressed by this outcry was incomprehensible.  All who heard it were arrested by its intensity.  They temporarily forgot the present danger to themselves and turned toward Jesus’ cross.  While the light produced by the lightning bolts was short-lived, Continue reading

“The Epic Battle – Part 6”

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As the soldier at the foot of the Cross wonders if Jesus really could be God’s Son—wonders if this death could be something more than hundreds of others he’s 1The Epic Battle-Part 6seen—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?

Quite some time elapsed as the soldier thought about this.  Then a different voice was heard from a cross.  It was one of the men condemned to die alongside Jesus that day.  In a desperate attempt to get loose from the cross, he tries Continue reading