Archive for the ‘Righteousness’ Category


Mothers come in all sizesMother’s come in all shapes, sizes and ages. Some of us had young mothers, some had older mothers. Some of us had petite mom’s some had larger moms. Regardless of the age or size of our Mom’s, I know something all Mom’s have in common. When push comes to shove, when the gates of hell open up, when the world  falls apart, there is nothing stronger than a mother’s love for her children. Sorry Dad’s. You don’t come close.

A mother’s love for her children is one of the strongest forces in this world. I believe it is so strong because it is chiseled directly from the heart of God!

Power of Mothers LoveWhat makes God’s Love so powerful, and what makes a mother’s love so powerful, is a special bond!

A Mother bonds with her child through countless hours, countless feedings. This is her baby, her child. God’s love is so powerful because of His relationship to those He loves. God had a special relationship with His people, the Jews. It was a covenant relationship. It made the Jews special, beloved to Him. His love for them was different than His love for the gentiles because of that Covenant Relationship. Through Jesus Christ, we have a New Covenant Relationship with God. We are born again and become children of God. We enter into a new and special relationship with God. He has a special Love for His children. Just as a Mother has a special love for her own children, so does God have a special love with His children.

The Power of Love is because of the Relationship!

Mom fights off pitbullJust like you don’t pull on superman’s cape, your don’t spit into the wind, you don’t pull the mask off the old lone ranger and you don’t mess around with a Mom and her children.

Fremont, CA (KPIX) – A Fremont, California woman is recovering from severe injuries to her arms after a pit bull terrier attacked her in her own garage, forcing her to stash her baby in a garbage can for protection. Thirty-two-year-old Angela Silva received 50 staples and countless stitches as a result of Tuesday’s attack. Silva says her neighbor’s dog wandered into her open garage and lunged at her and her four-month-old son.After she put the child in a plastic garbage bin, the 80-pound pit bull terrier, “Swisher”, continued pursuing the baby and knocked over the bin as Silva fought the animal off with her arms. Two men across the street eventually came to her aid and chased away the dog.

“My flesh was flying off of my arms,” she says. “I just don’t think that I would have been able to stand up any longer.”

Mighty Pharaoh tried to kill the Jewish babies.

Mom saves Baby MosesThe Jewish Mom’s were so tough they were having the babies one day and out working in the field the next, their babies hidden away. One Mom was bold enough to make a basket of reeds and then waterproof it, and then put her baby Moses in it to float downstream. Mom’s do amazing things because of their love for their children.

Jer 9 23_24I believe that Jeremiah 9:23-24 gives us insight into what makes a mother’s love so powerful. These verses reveal what makes the heart of God happy, what He delights in. He delights when three things are at work on earth, and I believe God uses a Mother’s love to accomplish these three things:

Jeremiah 9:23-24 (NASB) Thus says the Lord, “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the Lord.

This morning we need to understand these three things that God Delights in, and once we understand these, we can better understand the power of a Mother’s Love. But first, let me ask you a couple of questions that this verse brings up…

What Do You Boast About?

“let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me”

Boast in God and MomYou may be smart, you may have wealth, but God says that doesn’t matter. If you are going to boast in anything, boast in knowing and understanding God. That requires growing relationship with Him. That requires an intimacy with God such that any time you pick up His Word you are immediately overwhelmed with a flash from God!

Like the TV series Chuck, who has the Intersect in his brain. Whenever he sees someone or something that is in the Super Spy data base, he flashes on it and all this information comes to his mind. He always gets overwhelmed for just a bit when he “flashes” on the information.chuck_main

Do you have that kind of relationship with God? Do you boast to your friends that you have such a special relationship?

I know that our world has become so infected with sin that homes and families are fractured and tormented. Not everyone has a wonderful mom who loved them and nurtured them.  Our Mom’s may be flawed in several ways, but there is always something you can boast in about your mom. It may be her cooking, her crafts, her drive, her protection, her prayers, her drive. Dig deep and find something to boast in about your Mom. Boast about her to your children, and even your grandchildren. Honor her. She gave you life.

We honor God because He gave us life. If we are to boast, boast in God, in that you know Him and understand Him.

What Are You Accomplishing With Your Life?

“I am the Lord who exercises (āśâ)”. āśâ actually means “to do”,  “to make”,  “to accomplish.” God is very focused. He is committed to working and accomplishing three things. But let me say this word of advice. God is rather picky about who he works with, who He accomplishes for. He only works these three things on behalf of those He has a relationship with.

Amazing MomMoms are amazing. Most of the time they are like Clark Kent, a mild-mannered reporter, but should one of their children cry out at night, or get in trouble, out comes the Supermom Cape and suddenly she is Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Look, up in the air, it’s a bird, no it’s a plane, no its SUPER MOM!Super Mom Action Figure

  • Diaper Changes: 7,300 by baby’s 2nd birthday
  • Diaper Changing Speed: Moms take 2 minutes, 5 seconds (adds up to 3 40-hour work weeks each year!) , vs. 1 minute, 36 seconds for dads
  • Giving Attention: Preschooler requires mom’s attention once every 4 minutes or 210 times / day
  • Taking Care: Preschooler moms spend 2.7 hrs / day on primary childcare, vs. 1.2 hours for dads
  • Chores: Women average 2.2 hrs / day, vs. 1.3 hrs / day for men
  • Laundry: 88% is done by moms, totaling 330 loads of laundry & 5,300 articles of clothing each year
  • Least Favorite Chore: Vacuuming the stairs
  • Most Kids: Mrs. Vassilyev of Russia gave birth to 69 children between 1725 and 1765
  • Oldest Mom: Rosanna Dalla Corte gave birth to a baby boy when she was 63 years old in Italy in 1994
  • Heaviest Newborn: Signora Carmelina Fedele gave birth to a 22 lb 8 oz boy in Italy in 1955

I know at the end of a busy week, even a busy day, most Mom’s don’t feel too Super, but you are! You accomplish so much! Your influence is incalculable.

Mom’s, know and understand that God is Super Too. There is one Major difference. Most Moms’ will admit that they don’t see themselves as Super. Very few Mom’s have ever potty trained their child on the first try. There were trials and failures. But God does not try and fail. He does not experiment on which food is best, or what reward works when trying to potty train a toddler. He is El Elyon, God Omnipotent who Reigns from on High. He is the God of Accomplishment! He is a God who is intimately and actively involved in your lives, and he will accomplish what He sets out to do. And in accomplishing His will for your life, He is guided by three things in which God Delights! And I suggest, Moms, that you are the hand of God, being used by Him to accomplish these three things….

God is a God of ACCOMPLISHMENT. He Accomplishes hesed, mishpat and sedaqa.

God Delights in Mishpāt (JUSTICE)

God Delights in mishpatJustice is the best word we use to translate mishpat

The basic meaning of this word is “to establish the heavenly norm or pattern on earth.” Normally this concept is applied to society, i.e., the bringing of society into the right order or arrangement. In this sense it is translated “justice.”

But in three passages its meaning is applied to a building. In Exodus 26:30; 1 Kings 6:38; and Ezekiel 42:11 this word is used in reference to the design of the tabernacle, the temple of Solomon, and the future temple prophesied by Ezekiel, respectively. Significantly, in all these passages it refers to the design or arrangement of God’s dwelling place.

The word translated judgment means the establishment of justice

God has a Kingdom in His heart, a kingdom of justice, of order, a kingdom that is at work in heaven and his desire is for it to be so on earth.

The Tabernacle was an earthly type of the Justice that God seeks on the earth.

When His Son came to earth, He did what was necessary to empower this justice on earth. One day He will claim this inheritance and establish God’s Justice on earth. Until that day, we as His children, have an earthly tabernacle in which the Holy Spirit dwells. God can establish His justice in our lives. His Son can reign in our hearts and everywhere our foot trods. Mishpāṭ, as justice, i.e. rightness rooted in God’s character, ought to be an attribute of man in general and of judicial process among them (Psalm 106:37).

Aaron wore the Breastplate of Mishpat. And so should Mothers

breastplate of mishpatThe breastplate worn by the high priest is called a “breastplate of judgment” (Exodus 28:15, 29-30), not from any alleged revelation given by the stones Urim and Thummim but because the breastplate covered Aaron’s heart and “they shall be upon Aaron’s heart when he goeth in before the Lord and Aaron shall bear the judgment (mishpāṭ) of the children of Israel upon his heart before the Lord continually.”

(Exo 28:30)  And thou shalt put in the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the Thummim; and they shall be upon Aaron’s heart, when he goeth in before the LORD: and Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart before the LORD continually.

What Aaron was concerned with before God was Israel’s justification, i.e. judicial sentence (see above) of guiltiness. We need more Mom’s who carry God’s Justice in their heart, and carry their children in prayer before our God who delights in mishpat.

Mom’s Communicate God’s Desire for Mishpat to their Children.

A.Proper Behavior.

Montevious Lewis

Montevious Lewis

Mom Give Public Punishment to Save Son from Life of Crime

A 12 year-old boy who bullied a fellow classmate and stole his iPod will have to cut the grass this summer at his school. That’s the punishment his school doled out. His mother had something else in mind. Believing that her son, Montavious Lewis, needed something more severe to get the message through, Bertreice Dixon decided that an afternoon at a busy intersection spent ringing a bell and wearing a sandwich board bearing his transgressions would be more effective. The get-up also included a plastic hat with the letter “D,” for dumb, a description of his actions, she says. According to Dixon, Montavious was trying to be “tough in front of his friends” and she says she is trying to save him from going “down a road where [he’s] gonna end up in prison or dead.” She insists that it is love that motivates her: “This right here is showing him how much I love him, and hopefully he’ll take it into consideration and don’t do it again.””Kelly Dudzik, Fox16 News, June 1, 2008;

Mom’s have an instinctive idea of the way God want’s His world to be ordered. They have an amazing opportunity to impress their children with our Creator’s Justice. The way He wants to Order our behavior in this world. When you go before Holy God in prayer for your children and grandchildren, you ask God to work His Order His Justice in their Life.

B.Proper Lifestyle

RIGHT IS TAUGHT

In the 1950s a psychologist, Stanton Samenow, and a psychiatrist, Samuel Yochelson, sharing the conventional wisdom that crime is caused by environment, set out to prove their point. They began a 17 year study involving thousands of hours of clinical testing of 250 inmates here in the District of Columbia. To their astonishment, they discovered that the cause of crime cannot be traced to environment, poverty, or oppression. Instead, crime is the result of individuals making, as they put it, wrong moral choices.

In their 1977 work The Criminal Personality, they concluded that the answer to crime is a “conversion of the wrong-doer to a more responsible lifestyle.” In 1987, Harvard professors James Q. Wilson and Richard J. Herrnstein came to similar conclusions in their book Crime and Human Nature. They determined that the cause of crime is a lack of proper moral training among young people during the morally formative years, particularly ages one to six. Christianity Today, August 16, 1993, p. 30.

Mom’s must teach God’s mishpat to them when they are young. Proper behavior is not a byproduct of environment, but the result of conscious choices made because of proper teaching in mishpat.

C.Proper Relationship

Mom’s can stand in the gap for their children to cloth them in robe of righteousness.

robe of righteousnessIn prophetic Vision, God’s Mishpat came to be expressed by the Nature of the Robe worn. Isaiah 61:10 is a good illustration of this.

(Isa 61:10)  I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.

Only those who are in Right Relationship with God will enjoy God’s Mishpat. There must be a relationship with Him, and that relationship means your life has changed, you wear a Robe of Salvation. God has dealt justly with your Sin through the cross of Christ, You are now clothed with His Justice, New Garments. New Relationship. Born AGAIN!

God Delights in tsedaqa (righteousness)

God delights in tsedaqaWe use Righteousness to translate this word. The difference between mishpat and tsedaqa is that mishpat begins in the external and transforms the internal. God’s justice becomes ingrained in our character. Tsedaqa begins in the internal and transforms the external. The justice of God in our heart becomes righteousness that transforms our lives and our environment. It is inner righteousness righteousness that prevails and causes us to outwardly triump!

  • Translated – Righteousness
  • It Is Right Behavior And Attitudes Based Upon A Right Relationship
  • Because Of Tsedaqa One Is Delivered And Triumphs
  • Conquering Righteousness In Action

“ṣedāqâ implies relationship. A man is righteous when he meets certain claims which another has on him in virtue of relationship”. It is that which “triumphs and prospers” deliverance, salvation or triumph — ṣedāqâ (reaches, relates, rewards– delivers, saves and causes to triumph) The word describes the attitude and actions God had and expected His people to maintain. He is unequivocally righteous;

More than ever Moms, our children need a Right Relationship with God. They need the Righteousness that comes from Jesus Christ, from giving their lives to Him. This world is getting sicker and sicker, and our children are under attack. Can you believe what England is telling parents? Will the US be far behind?

English Government encourages parents to NOT teach right and wrong Sex behavior

Parents should not teach their children the difference between right and wrong when it comes to sexual relationships, according to a new Government advice leaflet. By Lucy Cockcroft Last Updated: 3:29PM GMT 22 Feb 2009

Instead, a light and informal discussion is recommended, where moral values are not touched upon. The purpose of this approach, according to the leaflet, is to encourage openness and honesty. However, critics say that without suitable guidance, children will be left vulnerable when they are faced with making decisions about how to conduct a sexual relationship. The leaflet advises: “Discussing your values with your teenagers will help them to form their own. Remember, though, that trying to convince them of what’s right and wrong may discourage them from being open.” It suggests parents could use the lives of celebrities as a way of introducing the topic and says they should choose informal moments, such as when watching TV, rather than sitting teenagers down for a “big talk”.

Mom’s know that God requires boundaries for our lives. They instinctively teach their children the Law of God.While every Mother loves their child, there are expectations, boundaries that Mom’s expect their children to abide by. A picture of this is in the following illustration:

Rufus Jones lost a son of eleven years who was all the world to him. He wrote many years later about the experience, concluding with this luminous parable of how his own heart was opened to God’s love:

“When my sorrow was at its most acute I was walking along a great city highway, when suddenly I saw a little child come out of a great gate, which swung to and fastened behind her. She wanted to go to her home behind the gate, but it would not open. She pounded in vain with her little fist. She rattled the gate. The she wailed as though her heart would break. The cry brought the mother. She caught the child in her arms and kissed away the tears. ‘Didn’t you know I would come? It’s all right now.’ All of a sudden I saw with my spirit that there was love behind my shut gate.”

Gate will always openA child may rebel and shut them off from a mother’s love. Just as we rebel and shut ourself from God’s love. But Mom’s let their children know that no matter how rebellious they are, Love will always be behind the gate. Mom will always be there to open the gate once the prodigal child comes home. Christ will always be there with arms outstretched. Our children need to know that they are never shut out from God’s Righteousness and Love. Jesus Christ is the one who opens the gate to our lives and allows us free access to our Holy God.

No matter the sin, our children need to grow up knowing that God delights in tsedaqa, and that He actively desires for the Righteousness of Christ to be ours. Mom’s you can teach your children that no matter how dark the road gets, there is a Righteousness that is available to them in Jesus Christ. It is a Righteousness that will deliver them from sin!

God Delights in Hesed (Lovingkindness):

God delights in hesed

  • Translated – Loving-kindness, mercy, steadfast love
  • Active Force – doing, showing, keeping based on loyalty to a relationship
  • Three Integral Components:
    • Strength
    • Steadfastness
    • Love
  • The Active force of God whereby he actively seeks to come to the aid of those whom He has established a relationship. He displays His strength in showing mercy and loving kindness in a steadfast way. His love and mercy never fail because it is impossible for God to be weakened to the point of failure.

It is often used in reference to God’s specific, concrete acts of redemption in fulfillment of His promise. An example appears in Isa. 55:3: “… And I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.” There are three elements of God’s hesed. Take one away and His hesed is not complete. God shows hesed in His “strength,” in His “steadfastness,” and in His “love.”

In Hesed we find God’s Strength, Love and Steadfast Loyalty on Active and Continual Display. It is a Mother’s steadfast love for her children that best accomplishes God’s hesed on earth.

God Abounds in Hesed

God abounds in hesedGod’s Hesed (loving-kindness) is offered to His people, who need redemption from sin, enemies, and troubles. A recurrent refrain describing God’s nature is “abounding in ḥesed”

We find a beautiful portrait of God’s Hesed in the relationship of Ruth and Naomi.

naomi and ruth picture hesedIn Ruth 1:16-17, we see Naomi, an Israelite widow, decided to return to Israel after the death of her two sons in the land of Moab. Ruth, her widowed daughter-in-law, planned to go with her, even though Naomi warned her that there could be no expectation of marriage and children, but rather the bleak prospect of poverty. Still Ruth refused to leave Naomi.

Uttering one of the most moving pleas of hesed in the entire Bible, Ruth said, “Entreat me not to leave you, or to turn back from following after you; for wherever you go, I will go; and wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and there will I be buried. The L ord do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts you and me.” With that the two widows went back to Bethlehem.

Ruth’s hesed to Naomi resulted in God’s hesed to her, even though she was a Moabitess.

Boaz, married the young Ruth, and they gave birth to Obed, and Naomi served as the nurse. Referring to the child, the people of Bethlehem told Naomi, “And may he be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age; for your daughter-in-law, who loves you, who is better to you than seven sons, has borne him” (Ruth 4:15).

Ruth demonstrated hesed to Naomi and her God. Because of the relationship, she found the hesed of Boaz and God himself. Our Savior, is descended from Obed, the child of Ruth and Boaz. Obed was the grandfather of  David, the great shepherd king of Israel. Ruth is one of only three women named in the genealogy of Christ in Matthew 1.

The extraordinary efforts of mothers and fathers to save their children are unforgettable.

Mom demonstratees hesedBeichuan: The young woman buried beneath debris looked as if she performing an ancient ritual. The palms of her hands were placed flat on the ground and she was bent over. A rescuer cried out to her, but there was no reply. The rescue team was about to move on and look for more survivors, when the team captain returned to have one more look. He found a baby under her body. “A baby is still alive!” he said. The three- or four-month-old old baby was wrapped in a quilt. Uninjured, the baby was sleeping quietly. His sweet, chubby face brought some comfort to those around him at the disaster site. Holding the baby up, a mobile phone was revealed. On the phone’s screen, a text message read: “Dear baby, if you survive, please remember that I love you forever.” The rescuers, hardened by the horrors of the disaster zone, could not help crying.

Baby survives on dead mother’s breast Dujiangyan: Another three-month baby was discovered yesterday still suckling to her dead mother’s breast. When rescuers reached the infant, she breathed heavily while still sucking her dead mother’s nipple, completely unaware of the chaos around. Her soft, pink face was a strong contrast to her mother’s dust-covered breasts. “We lifted the baby very carefully. But as soon as we pulled her away from her mother’s breasts, the baby began to cry,” said Gong Jin, a doctor from Guangzhou who volunteered in Dujiangyan. “It is heartbreaking to imagine how a dying mother still tried to breast-feed her baby.” You can tell from the way the mother was positioned that she tried to protect her baby from being hurt. “Maybe she put her nipple into the baby’s lips at the last minute of her life.”

  • A Mother’s concerns are felt by her children, and those concerns and undying love do make a huge difference in children’s lives because:
  • A Mother’s love can heal a child miraculously when there is no hope medically!
  • A Mother’s love does open a child’s heart so the child is able to see the lower-energy that comes with harmful choices!
  • A Mother’s love sometimes is the only thing that opens a child’s heart so they can see themselves as a young person deserving self-respect.
  • A Mother’s Love “fixes” stuff that NO ONE else can fix!

Mother’s, you are touching your children with the very heart of God. Your love for your children has been chiseled from His very heart.

  • “As a mother, my job is to take care of the possible and trust God with the impossible.”
  • “Every mother is like Moses. She does not enter the promised land. She prepares for a world she will not see.”
  • “A mother . . . fills a place so great that there isn’t an angel in heaven who wouldn’t be glad to give a bushel of diamonds to come down here and take her place.”

Mom’s Love is Powerful

Jerry McauleyIn 1866 an illiterate river thief by the name of Jerry McAuley was converted while serving a term in Sing Sing. Later he established Jerry McAuley ‘s Water Street Mission.

Jerry McAuley’s Mission was just one of those dingy little mission halls such as one often passes in the poorer parts of New York. But read Reverend S. Irenaeus Prince’s account of what happened when the founder of this humble mission died :

I was to conduct the funeral and went early to complete the arrangements. As I turned down from Fifth Avenue through Thirty-Fourth Street, I saw a vast multitude standing in the sunshine, filling the streets and the square in front of the tabernacle. Astonished at the spectacle, and wondering why they did not go in and take seats in the church, I soon found that the house was packed with people so that it was impossible for me to get within the door. Proclamation was made that the clergy who were to officiate were on the outside and a passage was made for them to enter in. What could be more impressive and expressive of the estimate set upon the man and his work ? There is no other Christian worker in the City who would have called out these uncounted thousands in a last tribute of love and honor of his memory. There are many instances of men being instantly healed of the disease of drunkenness in Jerry McAuley’s Mission, and of beastly characters being entirely transformed. From the standpoint of material science there was absolutely no hope for many of these men. From the physiological point of view their bodies were hopelessly impaired, from the psychological point of view their mental capacity had deteriorated to the zero point and their will power had been long destroyed. Yet some of these men, men who had committed all sorts of crimes, who had lived in the lowest phases of drunken degradation for many years, were enabled through the present day outworkings of this Mighty Power to live exemplary lives, to become useful and honored citizens.

Mothers all, give me your undivided attention. Some of the worst characters among the men who were transformed in Jerry McAuley’s Mission did not, from our limited human point of view, deserve to be transformed at all. Some of them went forward to the mercy seat, not for the prayers of the mission workers, as they pretended, but simply in hope of getting a meal or an old pair of shoes. Some of them freely admitted this afterwards. Mr. C. S. Hadley, author of Jerry McAidey’s Water Street Mission, who was converted in the old Water Street Mission and an active worker there for many years, says that these men were converted because they had praying mothers.

The Power of a Mother’s Prayer

Moms Prayers convert lost childrenMr. Hadley says, in effect: ‘*MANY MEN COME IN HERE AND GO AWAY UNTOUCHED. IT IS VERY HARD TO CONVERT A MAN WHO DID NOT HAVE A PRAYING MOTHER.”

This is a very significant statement because, underlying it, we discover an important principle, a silent, invisible, working principle of this Mighty Power. That is, prayer is cumulative. EVERY real prayer IS RECORDED SOMEWHERE EVEN THOUGH AT THE TIME OF ITS UTTERANCE THERE WAS NOTHING TO INDICATE THAT IT HAD ANY EFFECT WHATEVER. Many things besides this statement of Mr. Hadley indicate this.

Mothers, isn’t it wonderful, unbelievable almost, that the prayers of these men’s mothers could not be erased; that all the evil, corroding powers of hell on earth could not destroy these prayers, so eternally were they etched in the invisible scroll of Life which records each answered petition to God?

Mother did everything she could think of for that boy. He was so cute when he was little and she loved him so I All through the day her heart was made glad by her boy’s glad play; she had such a time keeping him dry and warm and fairly clean and out of mischief and out of trouble, but this she did not mind at all. Yes, and she prayed for him too. Father would have thought it all nonsense, so she never said a word to him about it.

Mother didn’t know how to pray very well ; she had a secret fear of God ; then, too, there were the doubts which would creep in. Often she would be so tired at night that she would not try to pray at all. In fact it was only when the boy was sick, or after she had heard a particularly inspiring sermon, that she prayed. Even when she did pray there was often this fear of God in her heart ; but nevertheless, as best she could, she prayed.

When the boy began to go wrong Mother fairly agonized in prayer. Her poor, torn heart was now filled with doubt and fears; yes, and there was her wounded pride, too. Sometimes when she tried to pray she would find herself getting angry at the boy. Still, because it was her instinct, and because she did so love her boy, she continued her anguished petitions.

There were, of course, the times when she felt her soul flooded with peace, when she could pray on and on looking in blind faith to God and pouring out her mother’s loving, selfless heart for her boy. At such times she knew that her prayers were answered. But still the boy kept going from bad to worse. He would do better for a while, but it didn’t last long. Finally he married a splendid girl and spoiled her life too.

Father did all he could for the boy. Time after time he paid up all his debts; twice he started him in business. They sent the boy to the Keeley Institute and to expensive sanitariums. But it seemed that the forces of evil always prevailed. They erased, apparently, all the good there was in the boy. He got so he would make solemn promises to his mother, although knowing full well that he would break them. He did things that covered the family with shame and yet did not appear to care that it hurt Mother. Finally he left town under a cloud and was never heard from again.

Time went on and the boy became a greyheaded, besotted old sinner. The forces of evil had corroded his life until no one would have dreamed that he had had a praying mother. Yes, everything good had been erased from that man’s life — EVERYTHING EXCEPT THOSE ANSWERED PRAYERS OF MOTHER.

Mother had long since passed on to the Great Beyond ; but, etched so deeply into the scroll of his life that all the evil powers of hell on earth could not erase them, there still remained her answered petitions. Thus it was that the boy went into the mission hall that night and sat down with a lot of other drunken loafers. Finally he went forward and knelt at the mercy seat and there, with the selfless, loving prayer of faith being poured out for him by the mission workers, he contacted with God — IN AN INSTANT LIKE A GREAT FLASH OF LIGHTNING, ALL THE MUCK WAS SWEPT OUT OF HIS LIFE AND HE STOOD THERE CLEAN AND STRONG. And it was because mother had prayed.

MOM’s, never is a greater miracle than this is performed, than when your child, your grandchild is born again through Jesus Christ.

Miracles like this are happening all around us, all over the world. There is hope for this world because the miracle working power of Jesus Christ is still happening. The Love of Mom’s is still touching the hearts of their children. The prayers of every Mom are still at work even though they may be departed.

Moms need to prayMom’s take hold of this Mighty Power. Purpose to pray fervently for your children, your grandchildren. Never give up on the Power of Jesus Christ to transform lives.

Continue to seek after God, continue to show His Lovingkindness, His Justice, His Righteousness to those in your care. Your Love is chiseled from the very heart of God, therefore it is the most powerful force on this planet!

You yourself can use this Mighty Power. You can build the foundations of your little ones’ lives; Mother, you have this power and you must use it. It is into your hands, not man’s, that God has placed the destinies of the nations.

FATHER, THOU ART LOVE. THOU ART IN THE INSTINCT WHICH LEADS THE BEASTS OF THE FIELD TO THE PUREST WATER AND TO THE MOST NUTRITIOUS GRASSES. THOU ART IN THE INTELLIGENCE WHICH ENABLES MAN TO USE EACH GOOD THING FOR THE GOOD PURPOSE FOR WHICH IT WAS INTENDED. AND THOU DOST MANIFEST THY LOVING POWER IN THE LIFE OF THIS THY LITTLE ONE. THOU WILT ALWAYS BE HIS GUIDANCE IN SELECTION, WHEREBY HE SHALL TAKE UNTO HIMSELF THAT WHICH IS GOOD.”


If Sarah Palin and John McCain do not win the Presidential race, I think Sarah Palin could make an excellent living doing commercials. Remember the “Where’s the Beef” commercial for Wendy’s? Clara Peller made a great living with her “Where’s the Beef?” I love Sarah Palin’s “Say it ain’t so Joe!”

In fact I want to start using that expression against anyone who makes an outrageous or stupid assertion (like Joe Biden did many times).

Today I am saying “Say it ain’t so Joe” to Be-Asia McKerracher.

Be-Asia McKerracher

Be-Asia is a contributor to the Kansas City Star Faith Walk column. She had a little piece in the 10/3/2008 FYI section of the Star titled: “Righteousness lines my path to athiesm”. Here is an excerpt that raised a “SHOUTOUT” from my mudpreacher heart:

“So how did I become an atheist? I remember sitting in class one morning when a thought popped into my head: I had never read the Bible. How could that be? How could I — born and raised a Christian — never have read the Bible? Sure, I’d heard bits and pieces of it in church all the time, but, like most Americans, that’s where my knowledge ended.

And so the Good Book and I spent some much needed time together. What a shock! The Bible I had heard as a little girl was so different from the Bible I read as a young woman. The Scriptures that once sounded so beautiful, kind and perfect to my ears now seemed mean and sad and — to me, a young woman of 23 — deeply unfair.”

What is “UNFAIR”

Webster defines unfair as “marked by injustice, partiality, or deception. In a related definition it says “not equitable in business dealings”. I went for a 25 mile bike ride this morning, thinking about why she would find the Bible unfair. I wanted to know what God thought about that and he just pointed me to His Son. I got this overwhelming sense that if anyone should cry out “UNFAIR” it should be God and not Be-Asia.

Then I read these verses in Hebrews 2:6-9 (Phillips NT)

But someone has said: ‘What is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that you take care of him? You made him a little lower than the angels; you crowned him with glory and honour, and set him over the works of your hands. You have put all things in subjection under his feet’. Notice that the writer puts “all things” under the sovereignty of man: he left nothing outside his control. But we do not yet see “all things” under his control. What we actually see is Jesus, after being made temporarily inferior to the angels (and so subject to pain and death), in order that he should, in God’s grace, taste death for every man, now crowned with glory and honour. It was right and proper that in bringing many sons to glory, God (from whom and by whom everything exists) should make the leader of their salvation a perfect leader through the fact that he suffered. For the one who makes men holy and the men who are made holy share a common humanity. So that he is not ashamed to call them his brothers, for he says: ‘I will declare your name to my brethren; in the midst of the congregation I will sing praise to you’.

We were Crowned with Glory & Honor

God gave man (including Be-Asia) everything. We were crowned with glory and honor, stewards of His creation. Yet, as the Bible reveals elsewhere, man rebelled and followed Satan and sin. In order to restore this glory and honor to mankind, Jesus, God’s only Son, tasted death for every man. Through His victory on the cross, Jesus is now crowned with Glory and Honor, and enables mankind to share in His glory and honor as the Captain of our Salvation. Jesus is not ashamed to call us His brothers.

Jesus Tasted Death for all Mankind

Jesus Tasted Death for all Mankind

Now to me this does not seem to be “marked by injustice, partiality, or deception”. God wants all of mankind to enjoy that which He created us for-His presence and glory. God established His boundaries for mankind and was open and honest about the consequences of crossing those boundaries. He did not deceive us, nor was He partial or unjust. Jesus Christ tasted death for ALL of mankind, even those who deny God’s existence.

Is it Fair?

Is it fair for Be-Asia to take the gift that God has offered her, the precious gift of God’s own Son, and shake her fist at Him, spit in His face, and deny He ever existed as the Son of God? Is it fair to God, who endured the agony of seeing His Son take on the sins of the world, the sins of Be-Asia, only to hear her and others curse at Him and ignore and even resent His intrusion into their lives? Such a response by Be-Asia and others who deny God’s love and sacrifice smacks of great injustice. They are the ones who are unfair.

Be-Asia concludes her remarks with this proud statement:

These were my accomplishments, my good choices, and I’d made them on my own. After years of struggle, I had decided that being a righteous person did not require a belief in God.

Now comes the response that Be-Asia would probably call unfair. In Romans 2:5-11 (NLT) God is very clear about ‘righteousness’:

But because you are stubborn and refuse to turn from your sin, you are storing up terrible punishment for yourself. For a day of anger is coming, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. He will judge everyone according to what they have done. He will give eternal life to those who keep on doing good, seeking after the glory and honor and immortality that God offers. But he will pour out his anger and wrath on those who live for themselves, who refuse to obey the truth and instead live lives of wickedness. There will be trouble and calamity for everyone who keeps on doing what is evil—for the Jew first and also for the Gentile. But there will be glory and honor and peace from God for all who do good—for the Jew first and also for the Gentile. For God does not show favoritism.

Many believe they can live a righteous life apart from God. However, God will reveal His Righteous Judgment someday, and that judgment will be based upon whether we have sought and found the “Glory and Honor and Immortality” that is found only in His Son, Jesus Christ. There is no true righteousness apart from Jesus Christ. Be-Asia and countless others are simply living for themselves. They are living lives of wickedness. They are storing up God’s judgment and wrath for the injustice they have committed against God and His Gift to them-the life of His only Son.

Being fair also involves being equitable in business transactions. God is very “fair” when it comes o business. He simply states that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus His Son. If you continue to live in your sins you will receive an equitable wage-death and eternal separation from a Holy Righteous God. However, if you receive the Gift of Forgiveness through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, you will receive the Gift of Salvation and Eternal Life. That is a very fair and equitable business transaction. Where is the unfairness in that?


Does America have a Reprobate Mind?

The free online dictionary defines reprobate as 1. Morally unprincipled; shameless. 2. Rejected by God and without hope of salvation.

As I talk to many different people in the heartland, there is an overwhelming sense that America is headed for trouble. I am not sensing a great deal of optimism over the prospects of America economically, morally or spiritually. Of course much of this sentiment comes from the baby boomers who are now aged and into or close to retirement. Most of them are fearful over this upcoming election. They fear the unknown of Obama and dread the prospects of more of the same with McCain. That is why I’m thrilled at the energy Palin has brought to this election. Not so much politically. But she has electrified a renewed moral outlook in middle America. Her conservative stands have polarized a “silent majority” to use a forgotten overplayed catchphrase. I believe the forgotten element in this campaign is uprightness. America has been heading toward a cesspool of reprobation and middle America feels powerless to stop it.

Palin is Top Dog

Palin is Top Dog

All of a sudden a woman with fire and guts and passion stands up and speaks out and middle America is energized and sees a ray of hope for America. Sarah Palin is even getting top billing in some places. I visited a diehard union ironworker who has voted Democratic for 40 years. He said because of Palin he is voting Republican this election. He said most of his buddies were too. People in middle-America are concerned about righteousness being lost in America. They fear for their grand-children. Am I imagining America’s downturn toward reprobation?

No.

Not shocking any more

Not shocking any more

Look around you. Any cursory comparison of America in the 60’s with America today sees a churning of America’s moral values to the point that what was once considered shocking is now accepted and even approved.

Making fun of Reprobation

Making fun of Reprobation

This is the very result of having a REPROBATE mind that Paul described in Romans 1:18-28. I here use the easier to understand JB Phillips translation. My commentary is in blue.

ROMANS 1:18 Now the holy anger of God is disclosed from Heaven against the godlessness and evil of those men who render truth dumb and inoperative by their wickedness. It is not that they do not know the truth about God; indeed he has made it quite plain to them.

Here Paul states that people know the truth, even plainly, but they have rendered it dumb and inoperative by their wicked behavior.

For since the beginning of the world the invisible attributes of God, e.g. his eternal power and divinity, have been plainly discernible through things which he has made and which are commonly seen and known, thus leaving these men without a rag of excuse. They knew all the time that there is a God, yet they refused to acknowledge him as such, or to thank him for what he is or does.

People who are turned upside down in their thinking refuse to acknowledge God as God and furthermore, refuse to thank Him for being God and loving them the way He does.

Thus they became fatuous (foolish, inappropriate, and showing no thought) in their argumentations, and plunged their silly minds still further into the dark.

They argue stupidly and vainly against God and His Word. Their silly minds become darker and sillier.

19 20 21 22 Behind a facade of “wisdom” they became just fools, fools who would exchange the glory of the eternal God for an imitation image of a mortal man, or of creatures that run or fly or crawl. 23 24 They gave up God:

These reprobates believe they are wise, because their thinking is “upside down”. Instead of wise they are now fools, worshipping things, or their pet idols or belief’s. They give up on the True God Jehovah.

and therefore God gave them up – to be the playthings of their own foul desires in dishonouring their own bodies.

God gives up on them up, allowing their foul desires to become addictive to the point of dishonoring their bodies. Life becomes a game with no real meaning or purpose.

25 These men deliberately forfeited the truth of God and accepted a lie, paying homage and giving service to the creature instead of to the Creator, who alone is worthy to be worshipped forever and ever, amen. God therefore handed them over to disgraceful passions.

These people no longer know the truth of God. They can’t even begin to comprehend it, so “upside down” are their minds. They are prey for liars and deceivers. God hands them over to be dominated and controlled by their sinful and unrighteous passions.

Their women exchanged the normal practices of sexual intercourse for something which is abnormal and unnatural. Similarly the men, turning from natural intercourse with women, were swept into lustful passions for one another. Men with men performed these shameful horrors, receiving, of course, in their own personalities the consequences of sexual perversity.

Sinful perversions warp the personalities of the reprobate. They are no longer in control of their mind, will and emotions.

26 27 28 Moreover, since they considered themselves too high and mighty to acknowledge God, he allowed them to become the slaves of their degenerate minds, and to perform unmentionable deeds. They became filled with wickedness, rottenness, greed and malice; their minds became steeped in envy, murder, quarrelsomeness, deceitfulness and spite. They became whisperers-behind-doors, stabbers-in-the-back, God-haters; they overflowed with insolent pride and boastfulness, and their minds teemed with diabolical invention. They scoffed at duty to parents, they mocked at learning, recognised no obligations of honour, lost all natural affection, and had no use for mercy.

Reprobates are slaves of their degenerate (upside down) minds.

More than this – being well aware of God’s pronouncement that all who do these things deserve to die, they not only continued their own practices, but did not hesitate to give their thorough approval to others who did the same. Romans 1:18-28 (Phillips NT)

Reprobate minds have no shame over their actions, no matter how vile, and in fact give approval to others who do the same things.

If Sarah Palin has done anything, she has served to mobilize those in middle-America who still see God clearly, still honor His Word, still honor morality and life. Perhaps greater America will follow middle-America and return to those values that have made America Great!


The Declaration of Independence

Abraham Lincoln boldly explained the importance of the Declaration of Independence to American history in his Gettysburg Address of 1863:

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

On July 2, 1776, Congress voted to approve a complete separation from Great Britain. Two days afterwards – July 4th – the early draft of the Declaration of Independence was signed, although by only two individuals at that time: John Hancock, President of Congress, and Charles Thompson, Secretary of Congress. For those of you unfamiliar, here are some poignant passages:

The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among

these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security…

(Follows a long list of the offenses of England and their King)

…And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives,

our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Four days later, on July 8, members of Congress took that document and read it aloud from the steps of Independence Hall, proclaiming it to the city of Philadelphia, after which the Liberty Bell was rung.The inscription around the top of that bell, Leviticus 25:10, was most appropriate for the occasion: “Proclaim liberty throughout the land and to all the inhabitants thereof.”

It was a reference to the year of Jubilee prescribed by God for His People.

This weekend we celebrated Independence Day, the Day that our founding fathers declared our Independence from the tyranny and oppression of England. Most of us did it by watching Fireworks, like this display at Brian & Heather’s Home, or by eating grilled hamburgers and hotdogs, or by doing too much physical activity. But for the signers of the Declaration of Independence ,it was the beginning of a long fight to secure our independence, and become the great nation “The United States of America”.

America has survived many attacks upon that freedom, and still we remain America the Beautiful, the land of the free and the home of the brave?

This weekend we celebrated Independence Day, the Day that our founding fathers declared our Independence from the tyranny and oppression of England. Most of us did it by watching Fireworks, like this display at Brian & Heather’s Home, or by eating grilled hamburgers and hotdogs, or by doing too much physical activity. But for the signers of the Declaration of Independence ,it was the beginning of a long fight to secure our independence, and become the great nation “The United States of America”.

However, I believe that we are living in very perilous times. I believe God is trying to get our attention.

History is littered with the echoes of failed nations. Nineveh, the Egyptian Dynasty, Greece, the Roman Empire….

Edward Gibbon, author of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, attributed the fall of the Empire to (among other things):

1. The rapid increase of divorce; the undermining of the dignity and sanctity of the home.

2. Higher and higher taxes and the spending of public monies for free bread and circuses for the populace.

3. The mad craze for pleasure; sports becoming every year more exciting and more brutal.

4. The building of gigantic armaments when the real enemy was within, the decadence of the people.

5. The decay of religion—faith fading into mere form, losing touch with life and becoming impotent to warn and guide the people.

(Quotes from the tape “Our Godly Heritage” by Wallbuilders, Inc., PO Box 397, Aledo, TX 76008 817-441-6044)

Righteousness Exalts a Nation

I believe God is calling out to America.

I believe God is calling out to Churches.

I believe God is calling out to Christians.

I believe that God is Crying out Proverbs 14:34:

Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. (Pro 14:34).

Is America Righteous?

The Hebrew Word tsedâqâh (tsed-aw-kaw’). Describes justice, right actions, and right attitudes, as expected from both God and people when they judge.

Righteousness requires a Standard, a Measuring Stick that can be applied to actions and attitudes.

This Nation began with a foundation of Righteous Justice for All, of Righteousness as the basis for government. The Bible was the Foundation of our Constitution. Let me read some words from our founding fathers and mothers.


When asked the question, “What is the greatest thought that ever passed through your mind?” Daniel Webster responded:
“My accountability to God.”

Abigail Adams“A patriot without religion in my estimation is as great a paradox as an honest Man without the fear of God. Is it possible that he whom no moral obligations bind, can have any real Good Will towards Men? Can he be a patriot who, by an openly vicious conduct, is undermining the very bonds of Society?….The Scriptures tell us “righteousness exalteth a Nation.”

John Hancock April 15, 1775 “In circumstances dark as these, it becomes us, as Men and Christians, to reflect that, whilst every prudent Measure should be taken to ward off the impending Judgments….All confidence must be withheld from the Means we use; and

reposed only on that GOD who rules in the Armies of Heaven, and without whose Blessing the best human Counsels are but Foolishness–and all created Power Vanity;

Francis Scott Key February 22, 1812 (He wrote our National Anthem) “The patriot who feels himself in the service of God, who acknowledges Him in all his ways, has the promise of Almighty direction, and will find His Word in his greatest darkness, a lantern to his feet and a lamp unto his paths.’ He will therefore seek to establish for his country in the eyes of the world, such a character as shall make her not unworthy of the name of a Christian nation….”

Patrick Henry March 23, 1775 “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. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.”

“It is when people forget God that tyrants forge their chains.”

William Penn (Founder of Pennsylvania) “If thou wouldst rule well, thou must rule for

God, and to do that, thou must be ruled by him….Those who will not be governed by God will be ruled by tyrants.”

James Madison “We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.”

George Washington In his Inaugural Speech, April 30, 1789,“No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States.”

We have come a long way since 1776.

Today we no longer Cry out to God for righteousness. We no longer practice Justice.

We are more concerned about being “fair” to all people. We don’t want to “offend” others. We run our government by “poll numbers” and “political correctness”.

After all who can say what “Righteousness” is? Behavior and Lifestyles are all subjective anyway. The only standard we have in society is “Thou shall not hurt anyone or the environment” (Picture is of Jennifer Kozumplik (left) and her partner of 17 years Nicole Webber celebrating their recent marriage in California with 18 month old daughter Sophie.)

TRUE Righteousness demands a standard of behavior. It demands a standard or Right and

Wrong.

Our society has become so open minded that we are afraid to confront evil, we are afraid to offend those who do wrong. Science and Medicine have done their best to explain away sins and wrong behavior. They excuse immorality, debauchery, drug abuse, alcoholism, perversion, and most of societies ill’s as a sickness or a disease. There is no right or wrong any more.

To cry out for Righteousness in our nation would be to cry out for God to Reign, for God’s Word to be Obeyed, for only God is Righteous.

Deut. 4:5-9:
5 Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the LORD my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it.
6 Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a

wise and understanding people.
7 For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon him for?
8 And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?
9 Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons;

Psalm 119:142:

Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth.

America Has Turned Away from God’s Righteousness

For many years God’s Word was read in the classroom, read in the legislatures, read in our homes. It was the standard for our behavior, our laws our relationships with one another. Prayer was allowed in school just as it is in our nation’s capitol.

Our nation and our judges and legislators have moved away from the Righteousness of God’s Word. Much of it has been the result of Supreme Court Decisions.

· The First Amendment has erected a wall between church and state. That wall must be kept high and impregnable. We could not approve the slightest breach. Everson v. Board of Education, 1947

· “Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our teachers and our Country” – the prayer that was the contention of Engel v Vitale.

· It is unconstitutional to offer verbal prayers in a school, regardless of denominational neutrality and voluntary participation. Engel v. Vitale, 1962; Abington v. Schempp, 1963; Commissioner of Education v. School Committee of Leyden, 1971.

· It is unconstitutional for a student to pray aloud over his lunch. Reed v. van Hoven.

· Students have guaranteed freedom of speech and press, except when it becomes religious, at which point it becomes unconstitutional. Stein v. Oshinsky, 1965; Collins v. Chandler Unified School District, 1981.

· It is unconstitutional for a voluntary gathering of students before school to hear the prayers of Congressional Chaplains read from the Congressional Record by a student volunteer, even though the prayers are printed in a public manuscript published by the U.S. government. State Board v. Board of Education of Netcong, 1970.

· It is unconstitutional for the walls of a classroom to have the Ten Commandments on them, because it may lead the students to read them, meditate on them, respect them, or obey them. Stone v. Gramm; 1980; Ring v. Grand Forks Public School District, 1980; Lanner v. Wimmer, 1981.

If our Founding Fathers saw what our Courts were doing, they would be in arms, with a New Declaration of Independence.

Abraham Lincoln, when he was asked if he thought God was on the Union’s side :

Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side. My great concern is to be on God’s side.

French Historian Alexis de Tocqueville (wrote Democracy in America), upon visiting America in 1831:

“I sought for the greatness of the United States in her commodious harbors, her ample rivers, her fertile fields, and boundless forests–and it was not there.

I sought for it in her rich mines, her vast world commerce, her public school system, and in her institutions of higher learning–and it was not there.

I looked for it in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution–and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great!” Alexis de Tocqueville.

John the Baptist Preaching Righteousness

John the Baptist Preaching Righteousness

Our Churches and Pulpits Must Flame with Cries for Righteousness Once Again if we are to Right the Course of America.

We Must Embrace the Declaration of Christ

Clearly America needs to return to righteousness as our standard of government, judgment

and relationships? But how will we do that?

We must embrace a New Declaration, the Declaration of Jesus Christ for America. In so doing, we will arrive at a New Declaration of Dependence for America.

Luke 4:16-19 So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:

18 “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me.
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.”

Jesus Declared that only in Him do we have Life, Liberty and Happiness

In the American Declaration of Independence, we declared that we had certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. While we hold these rights dear, we must acknowledge that Life Liberty and Happiness can only come to us through Jesus Christ. It is not up to government. This World is subject to King Satan, and as our Declaration states: whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government.

Jesus Christ came into this World to throw off the Government of Satan. Whenever a person, a church, and even a nation yields to the Kingship of Jesus Christ, we RATTLE the gates of Hell.

Jesus Promises Healing (Life), Liberty, Sight so that we can Find His True Happiness.

  • The Gospel brought healing to the broken hearted.
  • Brought liberty to those held captive.
  • Brought Sight to the Blind
  • Brought Liberty to the oppressed or broken. (Happiness)

Jesus Christ has set us free from the dominion of Satan. He is still alive and well, but He is powerless when we submit to Jesus Christ. The end times are upon us and ole Satan is rearing his ugly head. He is working double time to destroy our great Nation and throw Chaos into the world.

The eyes of many Americans have become darkened because of Sin. They don’t know what Real Happiness is. So we have become a nation dependent upon drugs whether prescribed or illegal for our happiness. Or we have become mind numbed by Television and Movies that openly glamorize ungodly behavior. Behavior that as recently as 30 years ago was unspoken and unseen of on Television.

Churches are weak, the Bible isn’t taught, Righteousness isn’t preached, Accountability isn’t practiced, and many Christian’s follow a watered down gospel that produces lives so much like the world that you can’t tell the difference. We are no longer effective in bringing Righteousness into the world.

We Must Declare Our Dependence upon King Jesus & Live His Righteousness

Our forefather’s declared Independence from an oppressive government, and formed a Government Dependent upon a Sovereign God.

Our Nation has turned away from God’s Righteousness and dependence upon His Word, so it is time that the Church return to God and His Word and Declare our Dependence upon Jesus Christ. His final declaration, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, references the Year of Jubilee spoken of in Lev 25:.

On the first day of the year of Jubilee the priests with sound of trumpet proclaimed the blessings of that year (Lev_25:8-17). This great passage justly pictures Christ’s conception of his mission and message.

Just like the first Congress ringing the Liberty Bell of Freedom, We need to ring the Gospel Bell of Freedom from the tyranny of the Devil. We need to proclaim the Declaration of Jesus Christ throughout the land. We need to Declare our Dependence upon King Jesus

We Must Live the Righteousness of Jesus Christ

When Jesus read from Isaiah, it is also similar to some wording from Isaiah 58:5-6

Would you call this a fast, And an acceptable day to the LORD? 6 “ Is this not the fast

that I have chosen: To loose the bonds of wickedness, To undo the heavy burdens, To let the oppressed go free, And that you break every yoke?

The Key to returning our Great Nation to Righteousness is found in Isaiah 58.

In the first three verses God brings an indictment against his people. He tells Isaiah to cry loudly and declare to the house of Jacob their sins. But their sin is cloaked with an amazing veneer of religious fervor. This is what is so stunning and sobering. Verse 2:

Yet they seek Me day by day, and delight to know My ways, as [i.e., as if they were] a nation that has done righteousness, and has not forsaken the ordinance of their God.

In other words they worship as if they are a righteous and obedient nation. And they have themselves persuaded that they really want God and his ways. This is a terrible kind of delusion to live in.

He goes on near the end of verse 2:

“They ask Me for just decisions, they delight in the nearness of God.”

So they want God to intervene for them with righteous judgments. Things are not going well — as we will see in a moment. But they do not see the real problem. They love to come to worship. They talk the language of the nearness of God. They may even have moving religious and esthetic experiences in their efforts to draw near to God. But something is wrong. They express the frustration in verse three, but they don’t know what it is.In verse 3 they say to God,

‘Why have we fasted and You do not see? Why have we humbled ourselves and You do not notice

So something is wrong and they are fasting to make it right and it isn’t working, so something is terribly wrong.

There are FIVE things the people are doing in verses 2-3 to try to get God’s favor— all in vain.

In verse 2&3:

  1. they are “seeking God;” and
  2. they delight to know God’s ways; and
  3. “they ask God for just decisions;” and
  4. “they delight in the nearness of God;” and in
  5. they are fasting and humbling or afflicting themselves.

All of that and God tells Isaiah, Cry loudly, not softly, not quietly, but loudly, and declare to my people their sins.

So here is a Fasting that is not pleasing the Lord. Here is worship that is not pleasing the Lord.

And yet what is wrong with seeking God, and delighting to know his ways, and asking him for just decisions, and delighting in his nearness, and fasting and humbling our selves before him? What is wrong with that? Why, that sounds like the very way we talk about worship!

Doesn’t that make you tremble? Doesn’t that make you want to get so real with God, you could never be surprised by the Lord in this way — with your most zealous religious practices and even desires exposed as sham.

What’s wrong with their worship?

God answers in the middle of verse 3:

Behold, on the day of your fast you find your desire, and drive hard all your workers. 4 Behold, you fast for contention and strife and to strike with a wicked fist. You do not fast like you do today to make your voice heard on high. 5 Is it a fast like this which I choose, a day for a man to humble [or: afflict] himself? Is it for bowing one’s head like a reed, and for spreading out sackcloth and ashes as a bed? Will you call this a fast, even an acceptable day to the Lord?

The problem was they were worshiping and fasting on Sunday, and living in Sin on Monday. With God, Monday is the Proof of Sunday.

Monday is the Proof of Sunday.

God lists the religious forms of their fasting: humbling or afflicting oneself (no food), bowing the head like a reed, spreading out our sackcloth and ashes (cf. Psalm 35:13).

Then God lists the real accompaniments of this fasting: you go after your own pleasure (in some other way besides eating), you drive hard all your workers and become irritable or contentious and stir up strife and even go so far as to get into fights.

  • And God asks, “Is this the fast that I choose?” The answer is No.

  • So with God the authenticity of your Worship is how you live Monday through Saturday.
  • God warns us against the danger of substituting religion for righteousness.

In Isaiah’s Day, the people had much RELIGION but very little RIGHTEOUSNESS.

Today in America, there is much religiosity, but there is a SERIOUS decline in Monday-Saturday Righteousness.

How you treat people on Monday is the test of the authenticity of your Worship on Sunday.

1 Peter 4:17 (NKJV) For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?

  • Why was their fasting and worship unacceptable to God? – It left the sin in their lives untouched.
  • The only authentic fasting is fasting that includes a spiritual attack against our own sin. Whatever else we fast for we must fast for our own holiness. The only authentic worship is worship that includes at least an attack against our own sin.
  • If there’s an unresolved pocket of sin in your life and you are fasting about something else — some blessing, some healing — God’s going to come to you and say, “The fast that I choose is for THAT sin to be dealt with.”

But God says that this is not the fast that he chooses.

  • “The fast that I choose is One that Gives you Power for Daily Righteous Living that Benefits Others.

  • It is not for You Benefit, but for the Welfare of Others.

  • Verse 10: “And if you give yourself to the hungry, And satisfy the desire of the afflicted . . .[instead of oppressing them]”

God’s Prescription For Our Nation:

  • There is no earning going on here. The God of Isaiah cannot be negotiated with. He is sovereign and free and gives graciously to those who trust him.
  • What God calls our Nation to do is not a job description, but a Doctor’s prescription.
  • You can see that in verse 8 where it says that if you follow God’s prescription of fasting — “Your recovery — your healing — will speedily spring forth.”

God People Living God’s Righteousness will See God’s Recovery & God’s Healing. We will be called the Repairer of the Breach.

1. In God’s Fast, we are called to lift the burden of bondage.

Five of these components call for freedom.

Verse 6:

  • To loosen the bonds of wickedness,
  • To undo the bands of the yoke,
  • And to let the oppressed go free,
  • And break every yoke?

Verse 9:

  • “If you remove the yoke from your midst . . .”

Bonds, bands, yoke, oppression, yoke, yoke. . . The point here is: live to free people not burden them. Jesus said in Luke 11:46, “Woe to you lawyers as well! For you weigh men down with burdens hard to bear, while you yourselves will not even touch the burdens with one of your fingers.” We are called to free people from burdens, not oppress them with burdens.

2 In God’s Fast we are called to feed the hungry.

  • Verse 7: “Is [this fast] not to divide your bread with the hungry?”

3. In God’s Fast we are called to house the homeless.

  • Verse 7: “And bring the homeless poor into the house.”

4. In God’s Fast we are called to clothe the naked.

  • Verse 7: “When you see the naked, to cover him.”

5. In God’s Fast we are called to be sympathetic; to feel what others feel because we have the same flesh they do.

  • Verse 7: “And not to hide yourself from your own flesh?” The thought may be the same as Hebrews 13:3, “Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you yourselves also are in the body.” You have the same flesh they do. So put yourself in their place and feel what they feel.

6. In God’s Fast we are called to put away gestures and words that show raw contempt for other people.

  • Verse 9: “Remove . . . the pointing of the finger (literally, the “sending” of the finger, which may be a lot closer to our crude “giving someone the finger” than it is to merely pointing at someone); and [remove] speaking wickedness.” So don’t speak and don’t gesture in ways that show callous contempt for others.

7. Finally, in God’s Fast we are called not just to give food, but to give ourselves — our souls — and not just to satisfy the stomach of the poor, but the soul of the afflicted.

  • Verse 10: “And if you give yourself (= soul) to the hungry, and satisfy the desire (literally: soul) of the afflicted . . .” Ministry to the poor is not merely giving things. It is giving self. It’s not just relief. It’s relationship.
  • That is why I believe mission trips to people who are less fortunate to us are so important.
  • Isn’t this what Jesus taught us to do when He said in Matthew 25:

Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ (Mat 25:34-40)

  • And then He taught that the second Greatest Commandment was:
  • ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.

The Promised Results of Following Christ’s Declaration

  • Now, if we trust God enough to follow him in this prescribed seven point fast, what will happen in our lives and in our church?

1. If we fast like this the darkness in our life will become light:

Verse 8

  • Then your light will break out like the dawn (verse 8).

Verse 10 (at the end):

  • Then your light will rise in darkness,
  • And your gloom will become like midday.
  • Do you want light in your life instead of gloom? Look to the gracious resources of God — listen to your Doctor — and pour your self out for another person in need.

2. If we follow this fasting there will be physical strengthening.

  • Verse 8: “And your recovery will speedily spring forth . . .” Verse 11: “And [he will] give strength to your bones.” Who knows how much weakness is in us because we may not be pouring our energy into the weakness of others?

3. If we follow this fasting God will be in front of us and behind us and in the midst of us with righteousness and glory.

  • Verse 8, at the end: “And your righteousness will go before you; the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.” So God will be in front of you with righteousness and behind you with his glory. Verse 9: “Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; You will cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’” Whenever the role is called, he always says, “Here!” When we are doing what his Son did — in the power that the Son gives — “becoming poor that others might become rich,” (2 Cor. 8:9) then God moves in on us and behind us and in front of us and surrounds us with omnipotent love and protection and care.

4. If we follow this fasting, God promises to guide us continually.

  • Verse 11: “And the Lord will continually guide you.” O what a precious promise that is for us now as a church and a Master Planning Team. I wonder how much confusion and uncertainty there may be in some of our lives that comes from the neglect of ministry to the poor? It seems the Lord gives his most intimate guidance to those bent on giving themselves to the needs of others — especially the poor.

5. If we follow this fasting, He will satisfy your soul.

  • Verse 11: “And [he will] satisfy your desire [literally: your soul] in scorched places.” Our souls are meant to be satisfied in God. But we have learned again and again that this satisfaction in God comes to consummation when we extend our satisfaction in him to others. Pouring ourselves out for the poor is the path of deepest satisfaction.

6. If we follow this fasting, God will make you a watered garden with springs that do not fail.

  • Verse 11, at the end: “And you will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.” It is a paradoxical spiritual principle in Scripture: as you pour yourself out you become full. As you give away you get more. When you are watered with God’s grace you do not merely become a wet, moist, living garden; you also become a spring.
  • This promise comes to its fulfillment in the New Testament when Jesus used this verse in John 7:38, “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.’ [a spring of waters that does not fail] 39 But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive.” So you can see that trusting Jesus is the issue: “He who believes in me. . . ‘ The Spirit bestirs himself most fully when we by faith give ourselves with Jesus in the path of love and mercy toward the destitute.

7. Finally, if we follow this fasting, that is, if we give ourselves to the poor, God will restore the ruins of his city — and his people.

  • Verse 12: “And those from among you will rebuild the ancient ruins; you will raise up the age-old foundations; and you will be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of the streets in which to dwell.”

RIGHTEOUSNESS EXALTS A NATION. RIGHTEOUSNESS IS NOT WHAT WE DON’T DO. IT IS WHAT WE DO DO-TO HELP AND SHOW CONCERN FOR THOSE LESS

FORTUNATE THAN WE.

Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door. Emma Lazarus – 1883

America used to be a place where Christians opened up their arms to the wretched refuse, the tired, the poor, the homeless. Perhaps it is time we Call for God’s Chosen Fast to call us Back to Righteousness, True Righteousness that will Make our Nation Great Once Again.

Bill Leslie was Pastor of LaSalle Street Church in Chicago who died not too long ago after a long and remarkable ministry — like the one described in Isaiah 58. He had a near breakdown once and a spiritual Mentor directed him to Isaiah 58. He said it was verses 10-11 that saved him from a dead end street of exhaustion and burn-out.

And if you give yourself to the hungry, and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness, and your gloom will become like midday. And the Lord will continually guide you, and satisfy your desire in scorched places [like urban Chicago], and give strength to your bones; and you will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.

What struck Pastor Leslie so powerfully was the fact that if we pour ourselves out for others, God promises to make us like a watered garden — that is, we will receive the water we need for refreshment. But even more: we will thus be a spring of water that does not fail — for others, for the demanding, exhausting, draining ministry of urban self-giving. This gave him a pattern of divine life that got him through his crisis and kept him going for years more.

Perhaps it is time for our Church to Fast and Mourn for Righteousness to come into our lives, Righteousness that will bring Recovery, that will make us Repairers of the Breach, a Watered Garden, a spring whose waters never fail.

We Must Declare our Dependence on Jesus Christ. We must Carry Forth His Declaration and seek His Life, His Liberty and His Happiness for those around us that are in Need.


FallingIs it just me, or does it seem this world is on the edge of chaos? Financial markets across the globe have gone crazy the past few days, and investors are crying out for some kind of calm. What they are really wanting is to preserve their riches and see double digit returns again. The housing market in the US is in the toilets, and people keep hoping it is just a temporary thing. Just a year ago I read that home prices can’t really go down because the cost of labor and materials keep rising. Yet in the state of Florida as I well know, homes are going for $100 a square foot when just 18 months ago they were at $140 to $160 per square foot. And that doesn’t include the ocean front prices. Foreclosures will probably double this year, and the banks that made the loans are bracing for tremendous losses. Credit woes are not just isolated to home loans but extend to commercial and industrial concerns as well. There will be blood running in the streets before long.

CandidatesThe political scene appears to be just as chaotic. Americans have to choose between an old Vietnam Vet, a Mormon, a Southern Baptist Preacher, a Black with a funny name and a Woman with an infamous name. Already the fighting has captured headlines and political viewpoints are being obscured. This may be the most confusing and disappointing election America has had in modern history. A strong person capable of leading a nation out of chaos is nowhere to be found. We don’t need a politician, we need a Statesman, with a truly world view and Biblical view of the events that are about to unfold.

Jeremiah, the original Mudpreacher, was watching chaotic events unfold in his home town of Jerusalem. The King was Zedekiah, a totally selfish and inept leader. He was more interested in saving his own skin than leading his country. The city was under siege, starvation was rampant, people were resorting to cannibalism to stay alive, and the King refused to hear any Word from God. He kept listening to the stupid princes around him who kept saying ‘everything will be alright’. It’s like the Fed saying that “we will not have a recession”. It’s like Bush saying “we are winning in Iraq”.

We forget there is The God who still Reigns! He is not idle and powerless. His Plan is still moving forward.

Zedekiah means the righteousness of Jehovah. Funny, because righteous he wasn’t. God issued a scathing rebuke to Judah and her leaders:

“Samaria has not committed half your sins. You have committed more abominations than they, and have made your sisters appear righteous by all the abominations that you have committed. Bear your disgrace, you also, for you have intervened on behalf of your sisters. Because of your sins in which you acted more abominably than they, they are more in the right than you. So be ashamed, you also, and bear your disgrace, for you have made your sisters appear righteous. (Eze 16:51-52)

One of the sisters God referred to was Sodom. Sodom with her sinful sodomy and Samaria with her idol-worship was more righteous than Judah? What does that say about Judah and her inhabitants?

FallingI wonder what God is trying to tell our country, even this world. The last 10 years have seen more cataclysmic events than the previous 100! Our nation has been rocked by terrorist attacks, hurricanes, Katrina, natural disasters, drought, school and college shootings, family decay, mothers and fathers killing their own children and on and on. Surely God does not cover His eyes. Surely God’s Word is righteous and just! Surely God is crying out “You have committed more abominations than they!”.

The words of Amos still Ring with Truth and Clarity:

When a trumpet sounds in a city, do not the people tremble? When disaster comes to a city, has not the LORD caused it? Surely the Sovereign LORD does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets. The lion has roared– who will not fear? The Sovereign LORD has spoken– who can but prophesy? Amos 3:6-8 (NIV)

Weep before the altar

It is time for us to Proclaim the Name of God in our Prayers before the throne.

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The LORD is our righteousness.’ (Jer 23:5-6)

As Jeremiah preached before the FAKE King of Righteousness (Zedekiah), we need to find refuge in Jehovah-Tsidkenu (Jehovah our righteousness). All of the combined wisdom and military might of this great nation will do nothing to delay the coming “Jehovah-Tsidkenu.”

The preachers and pastors of America need to heed the words of Joel and cry out before the altar:

Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep and say, “Spare your people, O Lord, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’ ” Joel 2:17 (ESV)

Wesley Preaching righteousness

Our only hope as a nation, as God’s people, is to proclaim the Name of God – Jehovah-Tsidkenu! We need to cry out for His righteousness. We need to declare our sins before Him, of not honoring Jehovah as our Righteous God!

Jehovah is a Tsadik–a righteous One, says the psalmist (129:4). As an El-Tsadik a righteous God, there is none to compare with Him, Says Isaiah (45:21 ). He is the Rock whose work is perfect, all of whose ways are justice. Tsadik–righteous and right is He (Dent. 32:4). His righteousness is an everlasting righteousness and His testimonies are righteous forever (Psalm 119:142, 144). Righteousness and justice are the very foundations of His throne (Psalm 89:14; 97:2). Therefore in all His dealings He is righteous.

In this “post-modernist” generation, we have abandoned absolutes. NarcissisticAnd as we watch a generation grow up in love with themselves and what they each consider right, our nation will move further and further away from the Righteousness of God. That which was shameful 50 years ago has and will continue to become accepted and even expected. The stench of our hearts will continue to burn before the nostrils of a Holy God. The church needs to declare as Daniel the Righteousness of God. We must never abandon Jehovah-Tsidkenu! May our shame become evident and repentance weigh heavy on our hearts:

To you, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us open shame, as at this day, to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, those who are near and those who are far away, in all the lands to which you have driven them, because of the treachery that they have committed against you. To us, O Lord, belongs open shame, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you. Daniel 9:7-8 (ESV)

We must never lose sight of our righteous God. We must see Him loving Righteousness and beholding the upright!

For the Lord is righteous, He loves righteousness; His countenance beholds the upright. Psalms 11:7 (NKJV)

We must continue to preach Jesus Christ to this dying world. Jesus is indeed Jehovah-Tsidken! In his great sermon at Pentecost, Peter accuses his hearers of denying the Holy One and the Just or Righteous (Acts 3:14). Hebrews 1:8, 9 says of Him: But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.”

Jesus our righteousness

Jesus, in human nature, lived up to the perfect standard of the divine law, so that His righteousness was of the same complexion and character as the righteousness of God. Still more, as one with the Father, His righteousness was the perfect manifestation of the righteousness of God.

Jehovah-tsidkenu! Such a wonderful name! This name must be on our lips and in our hearts if this nation, even this world is to escape the coming chaos and shame. The Righteousness of our coming King is indeed the only method and the measure of our acceptance before Holy God; cleansed in the blood of the Lamb; clothed with the white robe of the righteousness of Him who is Jehovah–our righteousness–even our Lord Jesus Christ.

I once was a stranger to grace and to God
I knew not my danger, and felt not my load;
Though friends spoke in rapture of Christ on the tree
Jehovah-tsidkenu was nothing to me.

When free grace awoke me, by light from on high,
Then legal fears shook me, I trembled to die:
No refuge, no safety, in self could I see;
Jehovah-tsidkenu my Saviour must be.

My terrors all vanished before the sweet name;
My guilty fears banished, with boldness I came
To drink at the fountain, life-giving and free:
Jehovah-tsidkenu is all things to me.

[Whitelaw, Jehovah-Jesus, pp. 102, 103].