Our Personal Quest to Reclaim a Legacy of Thanksgiving #367

America is a nation of people with a centuries-old tradition of celebrating annual solemn days of Thanksgiving. Yet, it seems that our current generation has almost no concept of the deeply personal conviction of the crucial importance of gratitude. And it’s pretty obvious that that gratitude should most deservedly be directed to the Almighty Giver of every blessing and perfect gift in our lives. When you’re stunned with the reality that you survived what could have been a fatal event, how does that make you feel? Let’s look back to the time of the infancy of our American republic, two and half centuries ago.Read more

Tyranny or Liberty – the Choice is Yours

To honor Christ and disciple the nation – our own nation first – we must be willing to be discipled. That desire must be one of our highest priorities. When we, as individual followers of Jesus, are in the process of being discipled, then we can be trustworthy disciple-makers of our families. Then we can expect the church – the Ekklesia – to be walking in discipleship authority and receive Christ’s power to use His spiritual gifts in us to bring glory to Him. And then we can expectantly disciple those in our communities whom the Lord uses us to draw to Himself. This is the reality of healthy communities of true believers who become beacons of light to the “ethnos” community of our regions and nations. Nothing in the Bible would lead us to expect anything less. And that’s why we participate in the policy-making decisions of our communities however God leads us. At a minimum we must take seriously the privilege of being an informed voter. Read more

Josiah – Boy King – a model of bold humility

The integrity of King Josiah’s promise to lead his people to obediently comply with God’s covenant, was followed by immediate action; After the ways of God, recorded in the Torah were brought to the attention of all the people of the land in a public declaration, King Josiah ordered the high priest to remove and destroy all the objects of Baal worship in the country; He did away with the idolatrous priests appointed by the two previous kings over the course of 57 years. Think of it… That’s like removing all the evil, anti-God, secularist bureaucrats from public office in today’s nations. He even tore down the houses of the male cult prostitutes where women were weaving some kind of tent-like coverings used in grossly degrading and immoral pagan practices (2 Ki 23:4-7). Then King Josiah tore down all the depraved, idol-worshipping high places across Judah, outside of Jerusalem.  He even managed to tear down some of the deviant shrines of pagan perversion north of Judah in Samaria. This would be like shutting down all the porn shops and human trafficking dens across the nation. This was social reform on a scale never seen in the four hundred years since the time of King David.Read more
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    Dennis Petersen

    Dennis Petersen, author of Unlocking the Mysteries of Creation and founder of the Creation Resource Foundation.

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    How can God’s People be a Calming Influence in a Society filled with Fear? #361

    Are you a listening reader – a reader who spends time searching the Scriptures for insight and wisdom? Are you being careful not to waste time listening to proven dispensaries of deception (like the MSM)? Are you investing your life in discovering the truth about the world and the times that you’re living in? Then you are no doubt troubled by the tragic ignorance in our culture today. It’s no surprise that the great spheres of influence in society are rotting in confusion and corruption.

    Daniel’s prophecy about the time of the end (Daniel 12:4 ), when he was told that many people will travel to and fro and knowledge would increase… it helps us understand some things. But there’s a paradox. While modern humans have more knowledge at their fingertips than any humans in the history of the world, it’s clear that the vast masses of people are abysmally swimming in a sea of delusion and lost in willful ignorance. They don’t know history. They don’t know logic. Even Christians are at an historic low in their knowledge of God’s Word, the Bible. Most people you pass on the streets, especially those from a lifetime of public education, don’t even seem to know common horse-sense.

    Proverbs 15:14 tells us:
    “The heart of him that hath understanding seeks knowledge: but the mouth of fools feeds on foolishness.”

    Does that tell you something? Is effort required to seek knowledge over pleasure and entertainment? Did it say that the search begins with “a heart of understanding?” How do you get that? Do you think it depends on parents and mentors and the encouragement to press in to finding the treasures that lazy people will never discover?
    It’s no wonder that whole societies world-wide today seem to have lost their senses. It’s like they have no ability to discern what’s true, what’s right, what’s sensible.

    Ask the Beasts and Learn about God

    The Bible is filled with Hidden Treasures to Discover.
    One of those treasures, that continues to compel my ongoing study of the Creator’s Word and His World, is from the oldest book in the Bible… over 4,000 years ago… Job told his friends:
    “But now ask the beasts, and they will teach you; And the birds of the air, and they will tell you; Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you; And the fish of the sea will explain to you. Who, among all these, does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this,
    In Whose hand is the life of every living thing, And the breath of all mankind?” Job 12:7-10

    When I discovered that Job’s story included that statement (Job 12:7, 9 & 10)… I knew it had to have a page in my book. It would introduce a whole section devoted to “EXPLORING THE DESIGN AND PERFECTION OF THE CREATION.”
    When he said “who doesn’t know?” … do you think he is trying to make it clear that an open-minded discovery of nature should naturally lead anyone to recognize that there is a LORD of creation responsible for all the intricate design that he sees all around him?

    “Ask the beasts, and they will teach you;”

    What I’m giving you today is a gift. It’s really a key. And it’s designed by your Creator to unlock mysteries of God’s Awesome Creation. Part of that is to know where to find this extraordinarily helpful insight from God’s Word. Job chapter 12

    Job chapter 12 has to do with the Number One Evidence from the “Things that are made…”
    Paul’s first chapter of his epistle to the first Generation of Messiah-confessing believers in Rome, declares… “… his (God’s) invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So, they are without excuse.” Romans 1:20
    Everything you’re seeing out in nature on a warm spring day – flowers, grass, butterflies – All of it is giving you clear perception of …
    DESIGN … And when you see the intricate and purposeful designs in nature … what does that tell you?

    It tells you There IS a Supreme DESIGNER who designed it all! A very intelligent Designer at that!
    And That’s the number one attribute of our Creator’s divine nature – The Designer is the Author of Creativity.
    And when you look at all the beauty and variety of what He created, do you get the feeling He had a lot of fun doing it?

    Our Creator continues showing humanity why people can have so much pleasure by using their intelligence to echo His creativity.
    … think about it…
    Endless designs in His world of nature inspire us to reflect our Creator’s genius by enabling us to be creative.

    The Truth About America’s Founding Fathers

    As a lifelong student of the fascinating stories of America’s legendary heroes, from the Pilgrims to the Patriots, I discovered an interesting intersection with Holy Scripture. Just as the Bible has its notable heroes of faith and God-given courage in the eleventh chapter of the Book of Hebrews in the Bible, so also does the history of America have its heroes of courage and faith in its God-given deliverance from tyranny. And both have had their detractors and skeptics. They continually try to steer generations of young students away from confidence in the truthful place of those heros in the record of Almighty God’s providence in His redemption of the human race.

    Accusations to disparage the Founding Fathers are common in the world of fallen mankind. You’ve likely heard slanderous assertions that the Founding Fathers were a bunch of atheists, agnostics, and deists wanting a strict separation of church and state – nothing less than a secular government and a secular public with barely any Biblical values. While their charges are shamefully false, no one is suggesting that all the early American leaders were devoted Christians (though most of them were). The vast majority of Founding Fathers wrote openly, and often, about the influence of Christianity, the Bible and Jesus on their personal lives. You can learn more of the faith journey of the people we’re talking about in the resources noted in the transcript for today’s podcast, but let’s hear some actual quotes to get a glimpse of the thinking of these men.