Successful Strategy for Liberty and Prosperous Nation

 

Today I watched a documentary called:  Monumental:  In Search of America’s National Treasure.  In this documentary Kirk Cameron takes an adventure across the country to find out how the founding fathers had to fight and what we had to go through  to be where we are today.

In this documentary there was a little known about statue called theMatrix of Liberty built about 130 years ago.

This statue represents the only successful strategy for liberty and a prosperous nation.

There are some parts that are key and essential to for liberty and a prosperous nation:

1)  Faith – where in the statue was pointing to Heaven – in the God of the Bible and there was an Open Bible in the statue

2)  Character – inward liberty or moral transformation of the heart – as opposed to a top down morality where they had back under the monarchy before the Puritans came over.  You could still be a church, where someone would tell you what to do and what not to do, but true character started with an inward morality. This inward transformation of the heart required an Evangelist.

3)  Evangelist- would teach the Great Gospel of Jesus Christ what it means to transform the heart and how to do it according to the Bible

4)  Civil Law – (which is based on the Bible) – It dealt with mercy and equity that the Law based on the Bible with and a mercy and equity for all man kind

5)  Justice – an important thing to remember is that Justice and Equity is also dependent upon Mercy and Grace

6)  Youth – It was the parent’s responsibility to educate –  This nation was originally founded not on doing whatever the government says as far as education goes to parent’s and grandparent’s responsibility to teach the kids the Ten Commandments the Bible or how the world works from a Biblical Perspective instead of lining up to the governing authorities because their worldview was different.

7) Liberty – fruit the result of the matrix – was a man called liberty who had broken chains and had the lion of tyranny smashed under his feet which at that time represented the tyranny of the Lion of England.

Other interesting facts:

In 1647 the Library of Congress Printed the the Bible to be used for Schools according to David Barton who has one of the largest and/or oldest collection of Bibles in U.S.

There is the motto of Harvard which is found behind a tree and a fire hydrant that says “Christ and the Church”  and underneath that it says “Truth”

We as a nation have been given a model based on the Bible on how to maintain freedom and liberty in a nation.  When the Mayflower Compact was signed it was signed as a covenant between God and this Nation so that we may have the Liberty that God has so graciously bestowed upon us.  During those times when things were hard and oppressive for the Puritan’s and Pilgrims they did not give up and say it was the end of the age and God will just come and rescue us.  They fought against tyranny and secured the place for the future.  Now that is not saying that we have to ignore the signs of the End times and the signs of the age as they were in the days of Noah.  We can be ignorant of these things as well.  But we as Christians have been given tremendous liberties all across this nation and if it weren’t for these people, and what began in here then the Gospel would not be preached to the nations across the world through the missionaries that have been sent across the world.  They had to struggle through difficult times, and sacrifice their very lives and their families so they could impact nations.  They to fight against persecution which is going on in so many countries right now.  Maybe that’s why we’re not seeing persecution in America too that great extent because we’ve had our share of persecution from the beginning of the nation and as Solomon said that “there is nothing new under the sun” meaning that basically history repeats itself.  I am just amazed at the character of the people who were pastored by Pastor John Robinson of the Puritan movement and what they had to go through during those days.  There was a time of intense struggle and difficulty and it was all for a cause.  They too had to meet in underground Churches and they had to read the Bible in secret and they didn’t have internet, or electricity, air conditioning.  They had to sleep on ice, and snow, some of them were dying and sick, but they fought to secure a place for future generations.  It took tremendous character which through technology has been severely lost.  But thank God for the blessings which he has bestowed upon us because of these people’s sacrifice.  We have so much to be thankful for and as Solomon also said in Ecclesiastes after everything – all the books you read, movies you watch, and all the “chasing after the wind” what’s more important is fearing God and obeying the commandments.  Sometimes we have oversimplified the Gospel to just love, and that’s good to love, and out of the seed of love which Jesus had commanded, he gave us the means to follow the Ten Commandments through the inner transformation of heart which shows Christ’s nature through the people in the world and in the Church.

1 Corinthians 13:

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. ² And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³ And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned,^[a]but have not love, it profits me nothing.

⁴ Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; ⁵ does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; ⁶ does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; ⁷ bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

⁸ Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part. ¹⁰ But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.

Does not neglect :

The Ten Commandments

20 And God spoke all these words, saying:

² “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

³ “You shall have no other gods before Me.

⁴ “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; ⁵ you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, ⁶ but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

⁷ “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.

⁸ “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. ⁹ Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁰ but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. ¹¹ For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

¹² “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

¹³ “You shall not murder.

¹⁴ “You shall not commit adultery.

¹⁵ “You shall not steal.

¹⁶ “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

¹⁷ “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”

It is just a means of the how to of fulfillment.  The latter is guidelines for a society and a set of principles and precepts to obey and follow, and the former is the analysis of character within a believer’s inner man pouring forth outward to see the inner transformation of Christ poured forth.

The law of liberty has its cost but it’s definitely worth fighting for and Thank God for the Blessings bestowed upon this nation and across the world because of some people who had a vision and purpose to fight instead of giving up to slavery.

To summarize Kirk Cameron’s statement – “Each person can make a difference!” How are you trying to make a difference?

 

 

 

 

The French Revolution

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolution

I read this article and was fascinated by the similarities and the history.  What are your thoughts on the French Revolution from what you have read and what you know?

Jeremiah 17:2 and more

 

I was reading through this yesterday (ALL NIV verses)-

Jeremiah 17:2

² Even their children remember
their altars and Asherah poles^[a]

The verses before it were – 

¹ “Judah’s sin is engraved with an iron tool,
inscribed with a flint point,
on the tablets of their hearts
and on the horns of their altars.

So that just kind of stuck with me- Many pagan belief systems utilizes poles and structures like that to honor their ‘gods’ – like the Native Americans used totem poles, and the Hindus – used a very similar structure to honor their idols.  This particular one in Judah was used by the Ugaritic people (wikpedia).  It’s incredibly amazing that they had all these similar structures, in the belief system, before Abraham heard God speak the land of Israel and most of the world was exposed to this kind of thing.  It is very interesting to look at this from an anthropological and archaelogiccal standpoint – where they were in different locations and they all believed in similar things.  I know some people say that the Native Americans carried the belief system with them when they migrated across the glaciers, but I think that it is not coincidental that people that used to live in America had structures dedicated to idols just as they had in India, Greece and the lands that God was talking about and all across the world because they didn’t believe in the one Almighty God.  

I notice as I read through the Old Testament – that God is angry at two main things – idolatry – which is worshipping anything except for Him, and the wickedness that comes from idolatry.  Today I was reading through Jeremiah 23 and I read about the warnings about the shepherds who have dreams that are not sent by Him, and there is a severe warning for them.  Some Christians like to take the OT for granted like it is still not applicable today, but in many ways, to know what makes someone tick, is good, so you can avoid doing it, which is why we have the Word, and the Holy Spirit to guide us.  In Jeremiah 23 it says – ²⁹ “Is not my word like fire,” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?  It was interesting that we sang Burn in Me today and here I am reading about the fire of God in His Word.  

Jeremiah 23 and a lot of the portion makes use of the term baal and it is the same word used for beelzebub in the NT.  According to the online etymology dictionary, one of the root goes back to a term that means “to marry”.  It is interesting to note that this false goddess they were making this pole to was married to another idol according to their belief system.  You see the same thing among the Greeks and among the Hindus – their gods were married to goddesses…which is something that is never mentioned about the Lord – that He is married to anyone except for Israel.  The Book of Proverbs makes use of wisdom, as a person, but that is more a figurative representation of the term wisdom as the gender of the word like the use in languages like Latin, Hebrew and Greek.  

 

I found something that quite puzzled me – I was reading about a verse where it said that God actually hated the people and will no longer love them.  And I was quite shocked, but it actually does say that –

¹⁵ “Because of all their wickedness in Gilgal,
I hated them there.
Because of their sinful deeds,
I will drive them out of my house.
I will no longer love them;

So I was wondering who were these people in Gilgal or what does Gilgal mean that God despised them so much and I found this tidbit piece of information – “… Gilgal literally means circle of standing stones”- (wikipedia)  That was enough to get me intrigued…Do you know of the only place that we know of now as a place of a circle of standing stones – well that is none other than Stonehenge…. “circular setting of large standing stones” – (wikipedia).  This Gilgal place was debated by several people to be either one of many places with same name or the same place.  In Hosea and Amos it was used as a place of derision and when it talks Gilgal in the book of Joshua it mentions the stones – they were 12 stones to be exact –

Joshua 4:20-23

²⁰ And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan. ²¹ He said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their parents, ‘What do these stones mean?’ ²² tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ ²³ For the LORD your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over.

There were at least 50 stones in Stonehenge and there were 12 stones in Gilgal.  So if they are not the same thing then Stonehenge must have made to duplicate something that was already there or it was there first.  This is not the only duplicate.  There’s one called Gilgal Refim (ghosts or spirits) and was probably made by giant people in Bashan.   It is located in Golan.

http://www.israel-travel-and-tours.com/rephaim.html

 

There is one made from the Druid Stonehenge in England, but I don’t know if it is the same one.  So they must have done something really bad to make God say, “I hated them” and “will no longer love them for they are rebellious people.”

We look at the world today trying to understand the keys from our past so we don’t learn to make the same mistakes in the future.  God has provided us with His Word to show us clues to the mystery.  It for us through the help of the Holy Spirit to figure these things out and listen to the warnings given from God to His people.  Eventually Our Father in Heaven sent down His Son for the First Coming which was Jesus to die for our sins and He is coming down again.  Even though we have all this knowledge that is key to understanding the world and how not to make mistakes as peoples and nations, we still have a purpose here in our own lives and that is to grow in our own intimacy with God and to have a relationship with Him and to preach the Gospel.  Through the reading of His Word we can begin to see so many different sides of God and His vastness that we cannot begin to comprehend with our finite human minds.  I hope this has given you an inspiration to pursue God’s Word in your life and really study and learn and understand so you can go to depths that Paul did in understanding the mysteries of God:

ROMANS 11:25-32

All Israel Will Be Saved

²⁵ I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, ²⁶ and in this way^[e] all Israel will be saved. As it is written:

“The deliverer will come from Zion;
he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.
²⁷ And this is^[f] my covenant with them
when I take away their sins.”^[g]

²⁸ As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies for your sake; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, ²⁹ for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable. ³⁰Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, ³¹ so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now^[h] receive mercy as a result of God’s mercy to you. ³² For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.

That is good to know that God has mercy on people that He has bound to disobedience.