I FEAR FOR MY COUNTRY
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OVERCOMING FEAR FOR OUR COUNTRY
OVERCOMING FEAR FOR OUR COUNTRY
AOC posts about bringing a child into this world. What is she getting towards? She has a plan she wants to institute to make our country and world a better place.
Why are we so pessimistic?
The Hebrews lived in a foreign land. They had no privileges. Their faith put them in opposition with their sovereign king. They pledged loyalty to God and wanted to obey their leaders. But they clearly understood that God must be our highest allegiance. And when we have to choose between obeying God or the government, they knew.
America was not founded on freedom from Religion, but Freedom to practice and live according to your religious convictions. Amazingly, the Devil has found a way to silence what America call Christians merely by social disapproval and the theft of the rights we had purchased through the blood of the founders.
“There are certain Jews whom you have appointed over the administration of the province of Babylon, namely Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego. These men, O king, have disregarded you; they do not serve your gods or worship the golden image which you have set up.” Then Nebuchadnezzar in rage and anger gave orders to bring Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego; then these men were brought before the king. Nebuchadnezzar responded and said to them, “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden image that I have set up? “Now if you are ready, at the moment you hear the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery and bagpipe and all kinds of music, to fall down and worship the image that I have made, very well. But if you do not worship, you will immediately be cast into the midst of a furnace of blazing fire; and what god is there who can deliver you out of my hands?” Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego replied to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer concerning this matter. “If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. “But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.” Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with wrath, and his facial expression was altered toward Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego. He answered by giving orders to heat the furnace seven times more than it was usually heated. He commanded certain valiant warriors who were in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego in order to cast them into the furnace of blazing fire. Then these men were tied up in their trousers, their coats, their caps and their other clothes, and were cast into the midst of the furnace of blazing fire. For this reason, because the king’s command was urgent and the furnace had been made extremely hot, the flame of the fire slew those men who carried up Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego. But these three men, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, fell into the midst of the furnace of blazing fire still tied up. Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astounded and stood up in haste; he said to his high officials, “Was it not three men we cast bound into the midst of the fire?” They replied to the king, “Certainly, O king.” He said, “Look! I see four men loosed and walking about in the midst of the fire without harm, and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods!” Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the furnace of blazing fire; he responded and said, “Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, come out, you servants of the Most High God, and come here!” Then Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego came out of the midst of the fire. The satraps, the prefects, the governors and the king’s high officials gathered around and saw in regard to these men that the fire had no effect on the bodies of these men nor was the hair of their head singed, nor were their trousers damaged, nor had the smell of fire even come upon them. Nebuchadnezzar responded and said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, who has sent His angel and delivered His servants who put their trust in Him, violating the king’s command, and yielded up their bodies so as not to serve or worship any god except their own God. “Therefore I make a decree that any people, nation or tongue that speaks anything offensive against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego shall be torn limb from limb and their houses reduced to a rubbish heap, inasmuch as there is no other god who is able to deliver in this way.”
Dan 3:12-
TRUTHS TO GUIDE YOU IN A CONFUSED CULTURE.
GOD WILL ALWAYS HAVE A REMNANT. (THE 3 FAITHFUL HEBREWS AND DANIEL AS WELL)
And ultimately a consistent witness will reveal the insanity of those swept away by culture. We see this in the media all the time now. In our culture that no longer values marriage or life. In a culture where people reap the consequences of MORAL RELATIVISM, we see pundits unknowingly make the case for the Lord and His ways again. Alyssa Milano recently responded to restrictions on abortion, as if abortion makes a better nation. She called upon women not to be involved intimately with a man who would not be willing to raise a child with them. Hello, isn’t that what we used to call marriage before the culture mocked it and ruined it? Is not the marriage and child bearing gifts of God that the Supreme Court by fiat, not legislation, not debate, and people having to look at the consequences etc… destroyed in one sense and disregarded absolutely?
Now we have people unknowingly advocating for marriage again, but they don’t want to say it.
Why not stay with God than be on sifting and sinking stand of fickle public opinion.
“Yet I will leave 7,000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him.”
b. AS A LOYAL BELIEVER, YOUR FAITH WILL REQUIRE COURAGE.
It took courage to choose to be loyal to God and public worship when their lives were on the line. It takes courage in China to be a believer when they tear down houses of worship and threaten your leaders.
The Chinese government has all but outright declared formal war on Christianity with her renewed persecution of Christians and government-funded attacks against churches. In a recent act of anti-Christian violence and to add insults upon injury, the Chinese government destroyed a church and then sent the pastor the bill for the destruction according to a report:
Pastor Jin Mingri has felt firsthand the pain of one of Chinese president Xi Jinping’s harshest crackdowns on religion in years.
Jin’s Zion Church in Beijing, one of the biggest unofficial congregations in the country, was abruptly demolished by authorities this month, who then sent him a bill for 1.2m yuan (£133,000) for the related costs. Jin had preached there every Sunday for decades.
“Before, as long as you didn’t meddle in politics the government left you alone,” he said. “But now if you don’t push the Communist party line, if you don’t display your love for the party, you are a target.
“Of course we’re scared, we’re in China, but we have Jesus.”
Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men. Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God. Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.
1 PETER 2:13-
C. RECOGNIZE THAT IN AMERICA, YOU HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO PARTICIPATE IN THE POLITICS.
The commander answered, “I acquired this citizenship with a large sum of money.” And Paul said, “But I was actually born a citizen.” Therefore those who were about to examine him immediately let go of him; and the commander also was afraid when he found out that he was a Roman, and because he had put him in chains.
‘You have made known to me the ways of life; You will make me full of gladness with Your presence.’ “Brethren, I may confidently say to you regarding the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.
ACTS 2:
ACTS 22:
Thank you to Collin Kapernick and the Honorable Ted Cruz for bringing another dark time and the power of Hope and Truth to overcome.
“What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? This Fourth of July is yours, not mine…There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour.”
- Frederick Douglass
This speech was given in 1852, before the Civil War, when the abomination of slavery still existed. Thanks to Douglass and so many other heroes, we ended that grotesque evil and have made enormous strides to protecting the civil rights of everybody.
Douglass was not anti-American; he was, rightly and passionately, anti-slavery. Indeed, he concluded the speech as follows: “Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented, of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country. There are forces in operation, which must inevitably, work the downfall of slavery. ‘The arm of the Lord is not shortened,’ and the doom of slavery is certain. I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. While drawing encouragement from ‘the Declaration of Independence,’ the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age.”
There is a class of people who seem to think that if a man should fall overboard into the sea with a Bible in his pocket it would hardly be possible to drown.
I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs. - Frederick Douglass.
Douglass distinguished between the "Christianity of Christ" and the "Christianity of America" and considered religious slaveholders and clergymen who defended slavery as the most brutal, sinful, and cynical of all who represented "wolves in sheep's clothing".
What would he say about Christians who deny the moral imperatives of Christ today from caring for the poor to the upholding the sacredness of marriage?
D. REJOICE THAT THE LORD IS WITH YOU.
After years of the city of Jerusalem and the Walls being left in ruins, Nehemiah saw to its completion in 52 days. Years in ruin, with people living in constant fear of attack.
How did it happen? Well, Nehemiah didn’t wait for professional politicians or bricklayers, he mobilized everyone from bakers, to kids, to getting neighbors working side by side.
I don’t like how the social fabric has been torn in America today. I don’t know if we will keep our union left to ourselves. But I know God can and will bring revival to those who seek Him.
He only needs a few who pray. Remember God will always keep a remnant.
We have a church that comes to our MAC Camp just west of Terra Haute in Illionois. They’ve been coming for some time. The church, Marshall Baptist Church, in Marshall Illinois exists in a town of just about 4000 souls. The pastor has been there for over a decade. The church had been about 50 to 70 people. Nothing in the church changed, they were contemporary etc… in a small town. Then about 3 years ago, people started coming. Now they see close to 700 people attending. They have reached 20% of their local population.
Sarah talked to the pastor and he said, we didn’t start something new, nothing changed. God just showed up.
Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, The people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance.
Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.