Independence Day

Independence Day is the national holiday of the United States of America commemorating the signing of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

At the time of the signing the US consisted of 13 colonies under the rule of England’s King George III. There was growing unrest in the colonies concerning the taxes that had to be paid to England. This was commonly referred to as “Taxation without Representation” as the colonists did not have any representation in the English Parliament and had no say in what went on. As the unrest grew in the colonies, King George sent extra troops to help control any rebellion. In 1774 the 13 colonies sent delegates to Philadelphia Pennsylvania to form the First Continental Congress. The delegates were unhappy with England, but were not yet ready to declare war.

In April 1775 as the King’s troops advanced on Concord Massachusetts Paul Revere would sound the alarm that “The British are coming, the British are coming” as he rode his horse through the late night streets.

The battle of Concord and its “shot heard round the world” would mark the unofficial beginning of the colonies war for Independence.

The following May the colonies again sent delegates to the Second Continental Congress. For almost a year the congress tried to work out its differences with England, again without formally declaring war.

By June 1776 their efforts had become hopeless and a committee was formed to compose a formal declaration of independence. Headed by Thomas Jefferson, the committee included John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert R. Livingston and Roger Sherman. Thomas Jefferson was chosen to write the first draft which was presented to the congress on June 28. After various changes a vote was taken late in the afternoon of July 4th. Of the 13 colonies, 9 voted in favor of the Declaration, 2 – Pennsylvania and South Carolina voted No, Delaware undecided and New York abstained.

To make it official John Hancock, President of the Continental Congress, signed the Declaration of Independence. It is said that John Hancock signed his name “with a great flourish” so “King George can read that without spectacles!.”

The following day copies of the Declaration were distributed. The first newspaper to print the Declaration was the Pennsylvania Evening Post on July 6, 1776. On July 8th the Declaration had its first public reading in Philadelphia’s Independence Square. Twice that day the Declaration was read to cheering crowds and pealing church bells. Even the bell in Independence Hall was rung. The “Province Bell” would later be renamed “Liberty Bell” after its inscription –

Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land Unto All the Inhabitants Thereof

And although the signing of the Declaration was not completed until August, the 4th of July has been accepted as the official anniversary of United States independence. The first Independence Day celebration took place the following year – July 4 1777. By the early 1800s the traditions of parades, picnics, and fireworks were established as the way to celebrate America’s birthday. And although fireworks have been banned in most places because of their danger, most towns and cities usually have big firework displays for all to see and enjoy.  God Bless America ONE NATION UNDER GOD!

God Bless America this 4th of July:

https://jeworthen.wordpress.com/2015/06/23/god-bless-america-this-independence-day/

God Bless America this Independence Day

America has had a history that some may think now has too many bad memories over race.  But with that, we have as a country had a wonderful history of our Founding Fathers and good Christian men and women, that tried since our inception to PRAY and do the right thing for our country.  So this 4th of July I leave you with a plea for prayers for America, specifically South Carolina, and this wonderful outpouring of Jesus love, forgiveness and the move of the Holy Spirit after this horrific tragedy.  I pray too, for America to heal and come together,  and give us Lord your solutions we need as a nation.  For we have a US Constitution, that has worked.  No other country in the world has what God has given us, other than Israel.  In this I pray in Jesus name by the blood He shed on the Cross for all our sins.

With this comes a plea to know your roots, your history of America, no matter where you or your family immigrated from, this is the land you must give credence to. With that comes a sacred pledge to our American Flag, our laws, and our English language.  It is time for Americans to come together in patriotism, and love of country once more.   We are a Republic after all, and a democracy under that Republic.  We are not, under our US Constitution, a Communist nation nor will we EVER be, as long as we are educated on the issues.   We are one nation under God, with liberty and justice for all.  We are in essence a miracle of God Almighty, indivisible, the land of the Free.  And freedom does come with a price.   Do not take for granted this great land of all the sacrifices and wars that we have endured, from the Revolutionary war to the present in Afghanistan.  Do not undermine the great sacrifices made for this is a nation that was born out of the desire and hope from religious tyranny and freedom for all.  In the last few decades the threat of those freedoms,  by different groups from the progressives are posing a threat to our nation as we know it.   Let us not be deceived, even those of us who are Christians, must be vigilant like watchdogs, and know what is going on in the political arena.  Wherefore I put together some sites, studies, and Biblical reference as to how we are to vote as a Christian.  But, if you love your country, and do not adhere to Christian beliefs, this is still a good road map for values and morals, for I do believe in moral absolutes and ethics.  I quote:

“It is time for every Christian to be educated on the issues that concern the moral fiber of our country and the future of our families. Pastor Hagee gives you insight and educates you on the Bible’s position of various political issues you’ll face in the voting booth. The Bible tells us to listen to the voice of God and to obey His Commandments and He will cause His blessings to overtake us. We have been a blessed nation, yet we have failed as a people to maintain Godly principles, which guide our nation. We have failed to use the freedom to vote that our Constitution has afforded us. If we do not use our freedom to defend our freedom, we will lose our freedom. Learn God’s position on abortion, homosexuality, and your obligation as a Christian to be involved in the political process. If you are confused about your civil rights as a church or as a pastor, this series will define those guidelines.” Pastor John Hagee

Bible Positions on Political Issues by Pastor John Hagee

http://www.jhm.org/Catalog/Product/KT111/Bible%20Positions%20On%20Political%20Issues

From David Barton’s  Wallbuilders:

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John Adams

We electors have an important constitutional power placed in our hands; we have a check upon two branches of the legislature . . . the power I mean of electing at stated periods [each] branch. . . . It becomes necessary to every [citizen] then, to be in some degree a statesman, and to examine and judge for himself of the tendency of political principles and measures. Let us examine, then, with a sober, a manly . . . and a Christian spirit; let us neglect all party [loyalty] and advert to facts; let us believe no man to be infallible or impeccable in government any more than in religion; take no man’s word against evidence, nor implicitly adopt the sentiments of others who may be deceived themselves, or may be interested in deceiving us.

[John Adams, The Papers of John Adams, Robert J. Taylor, ed. (Cambridge: Belknap Press, 1977), Vol. 1, p. 81, from “‘U’ to the Boston Gazette” written on August 29, 1763.]

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Samuel Adams

Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he is not making a present or a compliment to please an individual – or at least that he ought not so to do; but that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country.

[Samuel Adams, The Writings of Samuel Adams, Harry Alonzo Cushing, editor (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1907), Vol. IV, p. 256, in the Boston Gazette on April 16, 1781.]

Nothing is more essential to the establishment of manners in a State than that all persons employed in places of power and trust be men of unexceptionable characters. The public cannot be too curious concerning the character of public men.

[Samuel Adams, The Writings of Samuel Adams, Harry Alonzo Cushing, editor (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1907), Vol. III, p. 236-237, to James Warren on November 4, 1775.]

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Matthias Burnett

Consider well the important trust . . . which God . . . [has] put into your hands. . . . To God and posterity you are accountable for [your rights and your rulers]. . . . Let not your children have reason to curse you for giving up those rights and prostrating those institutions which your fathers delivered to you. . . . [L]ook well to the characters and qualifications of those you elect and raise to office and places of trust. . . . Think not that your interests will be safe in the hands of the weak and ignorant; or faithfully managed by the impious, the dissolute and the immoral. Think not that men who acknowledge not the providence of God nor regard His laws will be uncorrupt in office, firm in defense of the righteous cause against the oppressor, or resolutly oppose the torrent of iniquity. . . . Watch over your liberties and privileges – civil and religious – with a careful eye.

Norwalk, An Election Sermon, Preached at Hartford, on the Day of the Anniversary Election, May 12, 1803(Hartford: Printed by Hudson & Goodwin, 1803), pp. 27-28.]

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Frederick Douglass

I have one great political idea. . . . That idea is an old one. It is widely and generally assented to; nevertheless, it is very generally trampled upon and disregarded. The best expression of it, I have found in the Bible. It is in substance, “Righteousness exalteth a nation; sin is a reproach to any people” [Proverbs 14:34]. This constitutes my politics – the negative and positive of my politics, and the whole of my politics. . . . I feel it my duty to do all in my power to infuse this idea into the public mind, that it may speedily be recognized and practiced upon by our people.

[Frederick Douglass, The Frederick Douglass Papers, John Blassingame, editor (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982), Vol. 2, p. 397, from a speech delivered at Ithaca, New York, October 14th, 1852.]

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Charles Finney

[T]he time has come that Christians must vote for honest men and take consistent ground in politics or the Lord will curse them. . . . Christians have been exceedingly guilty in this matter. But the time has come when they must act differently. . . . Christians seem to act as if they thought God did not see what they do in politics. But I tell you He does see it – and He will bless or curse this nation according to the course they [Christians] take [in politics].

[Charles G. Finney, Lectures on Revivals of Religion (New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1868), Lecture XV, pp. 281-282.]

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James Garfield

Now more than ever the people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless, and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness, and corruption. If it be intelligent, brave, and pure, it is because the people demand these high qualities to represent them in the national legislature. . . . [I]f the next centennial does not find us a great nation . . . it will be because those who represent the enterprise, the culture, and the morality of the nation do not aid in controlling the political forces.

[James A. Garfield, The Works of James Abram Garfield, Burke Hinsdale, editor (Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1883), Vol. II, pp. 486, 489, “A Century of Congress,” July, 1877.]

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Francis Grimke

If the time ever comes when we shall go to pieces, it will . . . be . . . from inward corruption – from the disregard of right principles . . . from losing sight of the fact that “Righteousness exalteth a nation, but that sin is a reproach to any people” [Proverbs 14:34]. . . .[T]he secession of the Southern States in 1860 was a small matter with the secession of the Union itself from the great principles enunciated in the Declaration of Independence, in the Golden Rule, in the Ten Commandments, in the Sermon on the Mount. Unless we hold, and hold firmly to these great fundamental principles of righteousness, . . . our Union . . . will be “only a covenant with death and an agreement with hell.”

[Rev. Francis J. Grimke, from “Equality of Right for All Citizens, Black and White, Alike,” March 7, 1909, published in Masterpieces of Negro Eloquence, Alice Moore Dunbar, editor (New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 2000), pp. 246-247.]

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Alexander Hamilton

A share in the sovereignty of the state, which is exercised by the citizens at large, in voting at elections is one of the most important rights of the subject, and in a republic ought to stand foremost in the estimation of the law.

[Alexander Hamilton, The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, Harold C. Syrett, ed. (New York, Columbia University Press, 1962), Vol III, pp. 544-545.]

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John Jay

Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation, to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.

[John Jay, The Correspondence and Public Papers of John Jay, Henry P. Johnston, ed. (New York: G.P. Putnams Sons, 1890), Vol. IV, p. 365.]

The Americans are the first people whom Heaven has favored with an opportunity of deliberating upon and choosing the forms of government under which they should live.

[John Jay, The Correspondence and Public Papers of John Jay, Henry P. Johnston, ed. (New York: G.P. Putnams Sons, 1890), Vol. I, p. 161.]

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Thomas Jefferson

The elective franchise, if guarded as the ark of our safety, will peaceably dissipate all combinations to subvert a Constitution, dictated by the wisdom, and resting on the will of the people.

[Thomas Jefferson, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Albert Bergh, ed. (Washington: Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association, 1903), Vol. 10, p. 235.]

[T]he rational and peacable instrument of reform, the suffrage of the people.

[Thomas Jefferson, The Works of Thomas Jefferson, Paul Leicester Ford, ed. (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1905), Vol. 12, p. 136.]

[S]hould things go wrong at any time, the people will set them to rights by the peaceable exercise of their elective rights.

[Thomas Jefferson, The Works of Thomas Jefferson, Paul Leicester Ford, ed. (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1905), Vol. 10, p. 245.]

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William Paterson

When the righteous rule, the people rejoice; when the wicked rule, the people groan.

[Supreme Court Justice William Paterson reminding his fellow justices of Proverbs 29:2. United States Oracle (Portsmouth, NH), May 24, 1800.]

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William Penn

Governments, like clocks, go from the motion men give them; and as governments are made and moved by men, so by them they are ruined too. Wherefore governments rather depend upon men than men upon governments. Let men be good and the government cannot be bad. . . . But if men be bad, let the government be never so good, they will endeavor to warp and spoil it to their turn. . . .[T]hough good laws do well, good men do better; for good laws may want [lack] good men and be abolished or invaded by ill men; but good men will never want good laws nor suffer [allow] ill ones.

[William Penn quoted from: Thomas Clarkson, Memoirs of the Private and Public Life of William Penn (London: Richard Taylor and Co., 1813) Vol. I, p.303.]

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Daniel Webster

Impress upon children the truth that the exercise of the elective franchise is a social duty of as solemn a nature as man can be called to perform; that a man may not innocently trifle with his vote; that every elector is a trustee as well for others as himself and that every measure he supports has an important bearing on the interests of others as well as on his own.

[Daniel Webster, The Works of Daniel Webster (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1853), Vol. II, p. 108, from remarks made at a public reception by the ladies of Richmond, Virginia, on October 5, 1840.]

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Noah Webster

In selecting men for office, let principle be your guide. Regard not the particular sect or denomination of the candidate – look to his character. . . . When a citizen gives his suffrage to a man of known immorality he abuses his trust; he sacrifices not only his own interest, but that of his neighbor, he betrays the interest of his country.

[Noah Webster, Letters to a Young Gentleman Commencing His Education to which is subjoined a Brief History of the United States (New Haven: S. Converse, 1823), pp. 18, 19.]

When you become entitled to exercise the right of voting for public officers, let it be impressed on your mind that God commands you to choose for rulers, “just men who will rule in the fear of God.” The preservation of government depends on the faithful discharge of this duty; if the citizens neglect their duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made, not for the public good so much as for selfish or local purposes; corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to execute the laws; the public revenues will be sqandered on unworthy men; and the rights of the citizens will be violated or disregarded. If a republican government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the divine commands, and elect bad men to make and administer the laws.

[Noah Webster, History of the United States (New Haven: Durrie & Peck, 1832), pp. 336-337, �49.]

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John Witherspoon

Those who wish well to the State ought to choose to places of trust men of inward principle, justified by exemplary conversation. . . .[And t]he people in general ought to have regard to the moral character of those whom they invest with authority either in the legislative, executive, or judicial branches.

[John Witherspoon, The Works of John Witherspoon Edinburgh: J. Ogle, 1815), Vol. IV, pp. 266, 277.]

http://www.wallbuilders.com/libissuesarticles.asp?id=80
 Wallbuilders, Christians and Voting

 

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How Does God Judge Us?

Much of what I am about to write is going to come from C.S. Lewis’s “Mere Christianity”, Book 3: chapter 4.  For when my bi-polar son committed suicide in 1999, in my pain and brokenness, I received a lot of comments from misinformed Christians, who only added to my pain.  It was through Warren and David Weirsbe’s book “Comforting the Bereaved” and this by Lewis, that I was too comforted, by the truth, and able to heal.  You see, my son was in a Christian Academy from K-6^th grade, and was saved at 11 years old.  He went to evangelism classes with me. Young, he knew Jesus. However, when puberty hit, so did the first signs of Bi-polar disorder.

The premise that suicide is a sin, not to be tolerated, and that the individual will automatically go to hell, came out of a misinformed Catholic Church. (They are still misinformed, now with a Marxist Pope playing politics on global warming, which is cyclical and God, and now guns, which is none of his business in the 2^nd Amendment and US Government.)  If some prophetic ministries are right, the antichrist is alive now, and will come out of the Vatican. This Pope who may not have read the Old Testament, whereby, God gave Israel to the Jews, in Genesis 13, also siding with Palestine, Hamas, and terrorists, against Israel and the Jews.  Whose work is he doing?  Certainly not Jesus, for Jesus was a Jew, Rabbi in Matthew.  And it is merely my view that the same Romans that nailed Jesus on the Cross for centuries lied and blamed it on the Jews, hi-jacked Christianity, for Jesus never intended to start a new religion. It was only after His death and Apostle Paul’s travels, to Greece,  Italy, Rome, etc. ministering to the gentiles that it changed. Even Martin Luther knew that, when he was unable to attain salvation through dead works, on his knees in an abbey, scrubbing floors in tears.  But, when he called out to Jesus, he received it free by grace, and left the Catholic Church, starting the Lutheran church.  Not to mention this Pope now siding too, “re-thinking” gays?  When God clearly points out in Deuteronomy and Leviticus that “man shall not lie with man.” Who is therefore right? This left wing Pope doing the devil’s lies, or God Almighty?  So how will God judge him, or us?

In this chapter, Lewis spoke of “Morality and Psychoanalysis”.  Since my son, died having a mental illness, I wanted to know truths….God’s truth.  And I think this applies to those who end up with Alzheimer’s, Agoraphobia, (me afraid of heights), Schizophrenia, those afraid of insects, afraid of leaving their house….on and on.

Lewis: “First of all, since Christian morality claims to be a technique for putting the human machine right, I think you would like to know how it is related to another technique which seems to make a similar claim – namely psychoanalysis.  Now you want to distinguish very clearly between two things: between the actual medical theories and technique of the psychoanalysts, and the general philosophical view of the world which Freud and others add to this.  The 2^nd thing with Freud is in direct contradiction to the other great psychologist, Jung.  When Freud is talking about how to cure neurotics he is speaking as a specialist on his own subject, but when he goes on to talk general philosophy he is speaking as an amateur.”  (My belief is this Pope is too!)

“It is therefore quite sensible to attend to him with respect in the one case and not the other. But psychoanalysis itself, apart from all the philosophical additions that Freud and others have made to it, is NOT in the least contradictory to Christianity.   Its technique overlaps with Christian morality at some points and it would not be a bad thing if every person knew something about it.

When a man makes a moral choice two things are involved.  One is the act of choosing.  The other is the various feelings, impulses, etc. which his psychological outfit presents him with, and which are the RAW material of his choice.  Now this raw material may be of two kinds. Either it may be what we would call normal; it may consist of the sort of feelings that are common to all men.  Or else it may consist of quite unnatural feelings” (being gay or transgender used be called a mental illness and I think is.)  “due to things that are really wrong in his subconscious.  Thus fear of things that are really dangerous would be an example of the first kind, an irrational fear of cats or spiders would be an example of the second kind.  The desire of a man for a woman would be the first kind; the perverted desire of a man for a man (or woman for a woman) would be the second.  What psychoanalysis undertakes to do is to remove the abnormal feeling, that is, to give the man better raw material for his acts of choice, morality is concerned with the acts of choice  themselves.   However, much you improve the man’s raw material, you have still got something else; the real, free choice of the man, on the material presented to him.

The bad psychological material is NOT a sin, but a disease.  It does not need to be repented of, but to be cured!”  (And THAT one statement helped me over my son’s death! For once Gays were treated as mentally ill and that has slowly dissipated in the past decades making it acceptable behavior.  It isn’t, and will have dire psychiatric and emotional problems in future years with the children of same sex couples…or transgender’s.  For like mental illnesses, etc,  I believe it, too, is a chemical imbalance of the brain.   One day, maybe, if society wakes up, there will be laser surgery to go in and fix all….including Alzheimer’s.) “Human beings judge each other by their external actions.  God judges them by their moral choices.  When a neurotic who has a pathological horror of cats forces himself to pick up a cat (maybe to save him from a car), in God’s eyes he has shown more courage than a healthy man may have shown in winning the V.C.  When a man who has been perverted from his youth and taught that cruelty is the right thing, does some tiny little kindness, or refrains from some cruelty he might have committed, and thereby, perhaps, risks being sneered at” (or killed if in a gang) “by his companions, he may, in God’s eyes, be doing more than you and I would do if we gave up life itself for a friend.”  Did not Jesus too, forgive the man next to Him on the other Cross?

“It is well to put this the other way around.  Some of us who seem quite nice people may, in fact, have made so little use of a good heredity and a good upbringing that we are really worse than those whom we regard as fiends.  Can we be quite certain how we should have behaved if we had been saddled with the psychological outfit, and then with the bad upbringing, and then with the power, say, of Himmler?  That is why Christians are told not to judge.  We see only the results which a man’s choices make out of his raw material.  But God does not judge him on the raw material at all, but WHAT he has done with it.  Most of the man’s psychological makeup is probably due to his body; when his body dies all that will fall off him, and the REAL central man, the thing that chose, the best or the worst out of this material, will stand naked!  We shall then for the first time see everyone as he really was.  There will be surprises.

Taking life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing either into a heavenly creature that is in harmony with God, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God.   To be the one kind of creature is heaven; that is, it is a joy and peace and knowledge and power…(Holy Ghost power).  To be the other means madness, horror, idiocy, rage, importance, arrogance, selfishness, greediness, and eternal loneliness.  Each of us at each moment is progressing to one state or the other.

That explains what always used to puzzle me about Christian writers; they seem to be so strict at one moment and free and easy at another.  They talk about mere sins of thought as if they were immensely important; and talk about the most frightful murders and treacheries as if you had only got to repent and all would be forgiven.  But they are right.  One man may be so placed that his anger sheds the blood of thousands, and another so placed that however angry he gets he will only be laughed at.  But the little mark on the soul may be much the same in both. Each has done something to himself which, unless he repents, will make it harder for him to keep out of the rage next time he is tempted, and will make the rage worse when he does fall into it.”  (Perhaps this happened to Dylann Roof, only 21, so misinformed, so full of hate and these murders in So Carolina. But he was forgiven…he was witnessed to, and he just might go to Heaven and be seen by God for that raw material inside.) “The bigness or smallness of the thing, seen from the outside, is not what really matters.”  (Just as the thief next to Jesus was forgiven.)

“One last point.  Remember that, as I said, the right direction leads not only to peace but to knowledge.  When a man is getting better he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still left in him.  When a man is getting worse he understands his own badness less and less.  A moderately bad man knows he is not very good; a thoroughly bad man thinks he is all right.” (I think of Obama now and his left Communist ideologies from his childhood associations with Marshall.)  “You understand sleep when you are awake, not while you are sleeping.  You can see mistakes in arithmetic when your mind is working properly; while you are making them you cannot see them.  You can understand the nature of drunkenness when you are sober, not when you are drunk.  Good people know about both good and evil, bad people do not know about either.”  C S Lewis

Perhaps somewhere down the line, this is why somehow we are not successful in leading our friends or family members to Christ.  I pray that we act in obedience to God.  Peter jumped overboard.  He went overboard for God.  He leaped into a miracle.  Maybe we all can now too, by understanding how God sees us.  Cause he knows every flaw, every blemish, every transgression…..and He still can forgive.  Thank you Jesus.

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Race in America

This a sad day in America…and unfortunately there have been far too many. This young man just by looking at him is so mentally ill..Yet it was his father who gave him that 45 on his birthday? Hate is learned. As we have seen with Isis and photos of a child carrying the chopped of head of a Christian. Yes, Obama’s only solution to all things, is to strip America of their 2nd Amendment rights, instead of addressing mental health, but ALSO HIS FAILURE for his past 7 years of BUILDING race relations, in DEED , not Race-baiting with his cronies, Sharpton and Jackson. It is Blacks killing Whites , and BLACKS KILLING BLACKS especially in Chicago..Does he address that? No! He is a failure as our first Black  President, his socialist ideologies getting in the way. He could have done so much. With Christ, all are equal when we come to the Cross. There are many huge mega churches as John Hagee’s in Austin Tx, that has been shot at, attacked and threatened. They have security guards now. Sad. But, has Obama ever spoken out once about all the Christians in America, (held hostage in Iran), or killed in Egypt, around the world? No. He saw this as a photo op to once more expand his sick ideologies. When HE in essence has brought America to this head! God help us..We need a Christian President that can through God heal America! remember hate is learned behavior…ie Isis.

It HAS to change. I watch intently conversations by Dr. Ben Carson, and Lt Col. Allen West, (West Republic). Whoever runs for GOP…MUST address race/guns and HAVE a plan to heal this country. It is a HEART problem..and there is only one that can fix our hearts..Jesus Christ. I know preacher T. D. Jakes is doing something with his ministry on this. (Guess I’ll be busy on here.) But when deciding who to vote for? The next President has to undo what Obama messed up…and it may take us 20 years. Pray..My God hears you..HE though has allowed what has happened..Just remember that. Because we have murdered unborn babies, shoved Jesus and our Founding fathers and our Constitution out the window. It is time for prayer and repentance. God bless you all.  We have work to do. This next election is going to “make” or “destroy” us. We can have a 2nd chance if America repents. Watch September. On the Jewish Feast of the Tabernacles and the 4th last Blood Moon. Something is going to happen. On the last one in April, on Passover, Bibi got elected again, in spite of Obama’s organizers over in Israel. Folks this is war. Good against evil. It is war with Isis and hates, and our own Black people here in America.  This President had such a magnificent chance in the last 7 years and failed; instead instigating,  race baiting, pouring kerosene on a  smolder, that has now erupted. It is the 60’s all over.

Excerpts from “Open Democracy”

“Take for instance the American Dream. It’s founded in the belief that America is a land of freedom in which hard work will yield opportunity. But America is a nation founded in slavery. The slave trade capitalized the original colonies and eventually the project of creating the United States of America.

Because of slavery, the U.S. was founded as a land of opportunity, but only for European immigrants. This reality persisted all the way up to the end of the Civil War, a conflict that ended less than 150 years ago. That’s real.

White immigrants were drawn to America in order to escape the rigid European class system and achieve the dream of becoming gentry in the New World. The economy they entered relied on a racial caste system that favored whites. White people’s dream of social mobility had nothing to do with black slaves and would continue to have very little to do with their descendents, even through the mid-twentieth century rise of the American middle class.

With slavery as its economic engine, the U.S. expanded across the continent. Americans won territory by engaging in genocidal campaigns against the original people of North America.

In spite of this history, we call ourselves a “nation of immigrants.” The very notion is rooted in our history of excluding African Americans and Native people from citizenship, making the U.S. historically, indeed, a nation made up only of immigrants. That’s also real. Yet we conflate the idea of the “nation of immigrants” with liberty and justice for all.

We continue to organize our understanding of America according to race today. Consider the Asian American stereotype. The stereotype is rooted in the 1960s when it was deployed to undercut support for the Civil Rights Movement.

Asians in America like me were described during this period as compliant, uncomplaining strivers, as compared with black people, who were cast as a “problem minority.” Asians were said to have channeled our concerns about racial injustice into hard work, winning success and supposedly putting the lie to the claim on the part of black leaders that government action was required to resolve persistent black poverty.

But race is so powerful a force in shaping our understanding of one another that the “model minority” stereotype has become accepted as fact. Some have even gone so far as to suggest that genetics play a factor in Asian American achievement.

As a racial justice advocate and community organizer, I’ve had to learn to live with this reality. In the 1970s, the angry young man I was believed that race is a political system requiring political solutions. We would win racial equity only by appealing to political and economic self-interest. Anything else was just feel-good politics; they might feel nice but they’re ultimately a waste of time.

But over the years my cynicism eroded, replaced by the recognition that in spite of all of the organizing I was doing, work magnified many times over by the efforts of thousands of campaigns for racial justice waged by people far cleverer than me, racism adapts to changing circumstances and persists in ever more insidious forms.

Racism is not just a political problem. It lives in our hearts and we live it every day through our shared culture. All of us do, even if we may experience race differently, and many of us to our disadvantage.

We are, indeed, a broken mirror. To truly understand human need and find our way to a just peace, we must commit to the slow and painstaking work of pulling the jagged shards of that mirror together so that with each touch we become a truer reflection of what it means to be human. 

This will require honest dialogue, and a willingness to invest as much in cross-racial community building as we do in campaigns and public policy. Through expanding our relationship networks we expand our perspectives, ideally in ways that redefine our sense of community need.” https://www.opendemocracy.net/transformation/scot-nakagawa/for-racial-healing-we-need-to-get-real-about-racism

Afterthought at this Church shooting. I watched “The Butler” yesterday on Netflix, and my thoughts went back to high school, the 50’s, then the 60’s and Martin Luther King. I bawled my head off from the beginning to the end of this movie. This man saw his mother raped repeatedly by a white cotton plantation owner, then his father shot to death right next to him when he began to speak out. He went into service..then the White House through so many of our historical Presidents. He saw them all. And Obama? YOU ARE A FAILURE! ALL YOU HAVE DONE THE PAST 7 YEARS IS PUT KEROSENE ON A FIRE..INSTIGATE WITH YOUR RACE BAITER CRONIES. Address hate, including ISIS, Blacks on Blacks in Chicago, Blacks too killing whites and going after cops ..(any color). Address the murder of Christians all over the world. Instead what do you do? Why go after our 2nd Amendment Rights again. HOW DARE YOU, insult our intelligence? I read James Baldwins “Tell Me How Long The Trains Been Gone, ” in my 20’s with 3 babies.. I remember Billie Holiday, singing “Strange Fruit” “Black man hang’n in a poplar tree…strange fruit..And I knew at 13 years old what she was singing..the pain..Are we not human beings? MORE THAN ANYTHING, MR PRESIDENT, THIS IS A HEART PROBLEM….and there is only ONE who can heal, who can soothe, who can CHANGE thinking, It is JESUS CHRIST AND THE BLOOD HE SHED AT THE CROSS FOR OUR SINS. (Not Allah, and more killing and hate! ) BUT THE GOD OF ALL..THE I AM…NAME ABOVE ALL NAMES…JESUS! Postscript..This movie IS worth seeing.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/10451522/The-Butler-the-real-White-House-butler-interviewed-aged-89.html?fb_ref=Default

I leave you all with this, written to this shooter Dylan after this horrific shooting in this wonderful Black historic church:

His name is Marcus Stanley. He is a 30-year-old, award winning Black gospel musician from Virginia. Marcus has also been shot, eight times. According to his website:

Marcus was shot 8 times at point blank range with a .45 caliber automatic weapon while touring as an initiation act by gang members. Due to the shooting, Marcus became temporarily paralyzed on his right side, lost the ability to walk, and leaving one bullet permanent lodged near his spine. With God’s grace and mercy, Marcus was successfully able to regain the strength to walk and recover most of the feeling in his right arm.

Here is the message he left for Dylann:

There is nothing left to say…It IS a heart problem.  Thank you Marcus for your witness to a killer.  God help us.   God help America. And let us all choose the next Presidential candidate who has a PLAN, a GOAL, and a HEART after GOD, to heal RACE and AMERICA!  Amen…Bless you all who read.

Marcus, you tugged at my heart! God Bless you !https://www.youtube.com/user/ThePianist247

https://www.youtube.com/embed/bY0saHHROpY“>

 

Full blog role:  https://jeworthen.wordpress.com/author/jwtn/

 

 

 

 

 

Generational Curses

I do believe in Generational curses, that pass down from grandfather to father to son, and grandmother to mother to daughters.  In this messed up world without marriages that are ordained by God, so much in our society upside down; ask, is it any wonder?

All we have to do is look at the news of generational hates with ISIS, murders, and even a child in one photo I saw, carrying the head chopped off of someone killed.  Little children! And children too caught in the crossfire here in America with gang killings, rape, and abductions. We need Godly parents to understand this.  We need FATHERS to be there for their sons, and to give a Godly example.  We need mother’s that do not rely on the world, but rely on God Almighty.  We are in dire trouble here in America and around the world.  We need JESUS…but, most of all, we need to REPENT!

The following studies are from various ministries.  Not much is taught on all this anymore, like it was in the 70’s and 80’s.  I hope it helps even just one person. For him that have an ear, let him hear the word of God. If it applies to you? PRAY dear heart, PRAY!

From Marilyn Hickey Ministries -Are you affected by a Generational Curse?

“Answer the following questions and see!  Do YOU or ANYONE in your family (including PAST GENERATIONS) :

Have a pattern of constant failure?

Have a history of untimely deaths and suicides or a large number of people who have died prematurely?

Exhibit a high level of anger?

Have a high record of accidents or accidents that are unusual in nature?

Have a history of abuse such as physical, emotional, or sexual?

Have a history of chronic illness (repeated colds, long-term health problems, etc.)?

Have a history of mental illness that may have progressed through generations?

Exhibit any of these personality behaviors: high-control, manipulation, addiction, co-dependency, depression, unforgiveness, or social isolation?

If you answered “yes” to any of the questions above, you could be under a Generational Curse!”

Ex. 20:5    Prov. 28:13

From: Great Bible Study:  http://www.greatbiblestudy.com/generational_curses.php

“Have you ever seen a family where the father has a problem with uncontrollable anger, his son seems to have been ‘handed it’, and the grandpa had the same problem? Or have you noticed that not only do you suffer from something such as persistent irrational fears or depression, but your mother and her father also suffered from it as well? There are many people today who are living under bondage that the sins of their forefathers has brought them under.

Exodus 34:7, “Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting (punishing) the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.”

Lamentations 5:7, “Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne (been punished for) their iniquities.”

This is beyond learned behavior; many children learn to be messy if their parents are messy. This is a spiritual bondage that is passed down from one generation to another. Some symptoms of a generational curse is a continual negative pattern of something being handed down from generation to generation. Often people who are adopted end up with the same characteristics as their birth parents, not because they were around their birth parents to learn how they behaved, but because they inherited their spiritual bondage. Some common symptoms of generational curses are family illnesses that seem to just walk from one person down to the next (cancer is a common physical manifestation of a spiritual bondage), continual financial difficulties (they continually hit roadblocks in their finances), mental problems, persistent irrational fears and depression. Anything that seems to be a persistent struggle or problem that was handed down from one generation to another may very well be a generational curse.

The purpose of a generational curse

I believe the reason God would punish the future generations with the sins of their fathers, is because of God’s bitter hatred for sin. He would require somebody who practiced witchcraft to be put to death (Exodus 22:18). He knows that one of the most prized possessions you have, is your children, and therefore it makes sin a lot harder to commit when you realize that you are not the only one that is being punished for it, but also your own children are going to pay the price for your foolishness. That’s what I believe is the reason behind generational curses. The whole human race fell thanks to Adam’s sin for that matter.

The price for generational curses has been paid!

The good news is that once you accept Jesus, the transference of bondage stops from your ancestors by means of generational curses. You can no longer receive spiritual bondages in this manner from your parents once you accept Jesus!

Christ was made a curse, so we can be freed from the curses that sin (both our sins and those of our forefathers) has brought us. Galatians 3:13, “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:”

Once you become a child of God, no longer will the sins of your forefathers cause curses to transfer into your life: Jeremiah 31:29-30, “In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children’s teeth are set on edge. But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge.”

So why are there so many believers who seem to be living under a generational curse? This has puzzled me before I understood how it works too. What may need to be dealt with though, is any bondage that was already passed down to you before you came into covenant with God. The legal grounds are certainly paid for on the cross and therefore broken. The only thing left to do is cast out any spirits that have gained entrance before you accepted Jesus.

Non-believers are still affected

Even after Jeremiah 31:29-30 makes it clear that believers are redeemed from generational curses, the next chapter in Jeremiah (32:18) clearly says, “Thou shewest loving kindness unto thousands, and recompense the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them: the Great, the Mighty God, the LORD of hosts, is his name.” Apparently, generational curses are still in effect, but for who is the big question.

Ezekiel 18:2-3 tells us, “What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge? As I live, saith the Lord GOD, ye shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel.” (Note the keywords “in Israel”… this is referring to those who are in covenant with God, which are us believers, not the rest of the world.)

Obviously, generational curses are alive and well in the lives of those who are outside the new covenant with God (non-believers).

‘Triggering’ the effects of a generational curse

It is possible for demons to enter a child before he accepts Jesus, then remain dormant or hidden in that child’s life until some time later in his or her life when it manifests (or makes itself known). Sometimes when a person heads for the ministry, it seems like the devil kicks up his ugly heels and causes havoc for that person. Other times, a line of fear runs in the family tree, but isn’t manifested in a person’s life until they get themselves involved in something fearful, such as watching a demonic movie. All of a sudden, the spirits in that person’s life “come alive” so to speak, and make themselves known. They were there all along, but just now they have come out into the open. The solution is to cast them out.

If you have involved yourself in any sin or opened any doors in your own life while ‘awaking’ or triggering the spirits, then it’s important that you clear up any legal grounds (or strongholds) that you gave the enemy in your own life relating to the bondage. For example, if you have went to see a demonic movie, and it seemed to have triggered spirits of fear in your life that were handed down to you, then it’s important to repent for going to see such a movie before trying to cast out any spirits. It’s also possible that you picked up the spirits from such a movie without them even being there in the first place, and/or added to spirits that were already inside you. It’s always a good idea to clear up any legal grounds or strongholds in your own life before casting spirits out.

I believe unforgiveness is a great way to ‘trigger’ generational spirits, so I would be on the lookout for any bitterness or unforgiveness in your heart as well. A common sight is when a spirit of cancer is running down the family tree, and I believe bitterness is a great way to trigger those spirits. Unforgiveness is a serious sin that blocks the forgiveness of your own sins (Matthew 6:15), which creates ample legal grounds for the enemy in your life. Unforgiveness in itself puts us into the enemy’s hands (Matthew 18:23-35), say nothing about awaking any evil spirits in us already!

The curse may be canceled, but the demons may remain

Just as other demons don’t automatically leave at the time of salvation… neither do the demons that you get from your ancestors automatically leave you either.

Let’s say that you accept Jesus at age 15. Because you were born a sinner and outside of God’s covenant, you were still living under the curses handed down to you and demons can enter you through those curses. Once you’ve accepted Jesus, those curses are broken automatically, but often the demons that entered in before you accepted Jesus still need to be cast out. In other words, the curse is already broken, and there’s no need for you to break any generational curses. But the demons who entered into you through those curses before you accepted Jesus may still need to be cast out. That’s why it seems so many believers are living under generational curses, when the Bible makes it clear that we have been freed from any curses handed down from our forefathers!

My parents have almost perfect health well into their 60’s, while it seems the family tree has many health problems that have been handed down from the forefathers. My parents seem almost immune from the health problems in the family tree! Sure, they take care of their bodies, but they also believe that they have been freed from the curses handed down in the family tree, and since no demons have entered them to take advantage of those old curses, they were freed from the effects simply by standing on what Jesus had done for them on the cross!

On the other hand, if demons have entered you through curses handed down to you before you became a Christian, then those demons may need to be cast out. Demons often don’t leave on their own accord, and when they don’t, the remedy to get rid of them is by casting them out.

There’s a neat story in Mark 9:17-27, where Jesus deals with what is almost certainly a generational curse (verse 21). Notice that Jesus didn’t have the boy confess the sins or iniquities of his ancestors, He cast out the demons that entered in through the curse. That’s how I believe we are to deal with the affects of a generational curse; since the curse has been broken, all there is left to do is just cast the demons out that entered into that person’s life back before they became a Christian (before the curse was broken).

Confess what is rightfully yours!

We know that our generational curses have been broken in Jesus’ name, but I still like to verbally confess what is going on and what is rightfully ours anyways, because there’s power in our verbal confessions, and helps us to realize that we are set free, and also lets the enemy know that he’s in trouble! Here’s a great sample confession prayer you can use to do just that:

In the name of Jesus, I confess the sins and iniquities of my parents (name specific sins if known), grandparents (name specific sins if known), and all other ancestors. I declare that by the blood of Jesus, these sins have been forgiven and Satan and his demons can no longer use these sins as legal grounds in my life!

In the name of Jesus, and by the power of His blood, I now declare that all generational curses have been renounced, broken and severed, and that I am no longer under their bondage!

In the name of Jesus, I declare myself and my future generations loosed from any bondages passed down to me from my ancestors. AMEN!

Another factor to consider

**[There are other things that can ‘seem’ like generational curses, but aren’t. Perhaps the most common is if there is an ungodly soul tie formed between you and one of your ancestors, that can also allow for the transferring of spirits. There is more to learn on this subject in the teaching on Soul Ties.]   

Ignorance: Another source of bondage!

I also believe that some people can live under what SEEMS like a generational curse, simply because they believe it’s still in affect! We need to know that it is NO LONGER in affect, and we have been FREED from any generational curses we used to live under! Jesus makes it very clear that we can be held in bondage to sin through ignorance (John 8:31-36), and I believe the same is true with bondage to generational curses.

In a nutshell

To wrap it up in a nutshell, I don’t believe Christians can live under generational curses… but I do believe they can be affected by spirits that have entered through those curses before they accepted Jesus. Just like many people’s past actions before they came to Christ have landed them in demonic bondage and caused them to pick up demons. Those demons are not automatically shed at the time of salvation, they often need to be cast out. The same is true with demons that enter in through generational curses (a doorway to demons).

How you deal with a spirit that has entered through a generational curse is very simple: Mark 16:17, “And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils…” Learn of the Spiritual Authority that Jesus has given you over demon spirits, and by faith, you can command those spirits to leave you in Jesus’ name! If you can’t seem to get them out, try prayer and fasting, as Jesus clearly stated, some demons won’t come out unless you have a higher level of faith that only prayer and fasting can bring you into (Matthew 17:19-21). If you are facing heavier bondages, it is recommended to seek deliverance through a man or woman of God who is knowledgeable and working in the ministry of deliverance. Before seeking out a deliverance through another person or minister, I recommend reading the teaching on Seeking a Deliverance.

Another type of generational curse

The type of curses handed down as a result of an ancestors sin is automatically atoned for on the cross, providing we don’t hide the sins of our forefathers in our hearts (holding sin in our hearts is never a good idea – whether its ours of the sins of our ancestors). But there’s another kind of generational curse that is handed down, and it’s a spoken curse that takes a toll on future generations as well. We can see this kind of curse in action in Genesis 9:24-25, “And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him. And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.” As the Bible goes on to say, this curse ended up affecting an entire nation! I believe these kinds of curses may need to be renounced and broken. If you are unsure of whether a curse should be broken, I recommend breaking it anyways, just so you know it’s broken. It doesn’t hurt to break a curse that’s already been broken. Here’s a sample prayer you can pray that you can use to break yourself free from spoken generational curses:

In the name of Jesus, and by the power of His blood, I now renounce, break and sever all curses that have been handed down to me from my ancestors. In the name of Jesus, I now loose myself and my future generations from any bondages passed down to me from my ancestors!

Again, if a curse has landed on you and has been broken, it still doesn’t mean you are delivered from the spirits that entered in through that curse. You may still need further deliverance to have the spirits cast out that took advantage of the curses handed to you.”

From Got Questions.org:

Question: “What does the Bible say about breaking generational curses?”

“Answer:The Bible mentions “generational curses” in several places (Exodus 20:5;34:7;Numbers 14:18;Deuteronomy 5:9). God warns that He is “a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me.”

It sounds unfair for God to punish children for the sins of their fathers. However, there is more to it than that. The effects of sin are naturally passed down from one generation to the next. When a father has a sinful lifestyle, his children are likely to practice the same sinful lifestyle. Implied in the warning of Exodus 20:5is the fact that the children will choose to repeat the sins of their fathers. A Jewish Targum specifies that this passage refers to “ungodly fathers” and “rebellious children.” So, it is not unjust for God to punish sin to the third or fourth generation – those generations are committing the same sins their ancestors did.

There is a trend in the church today to try to blame every sin and problem on some sort of generational curse. This is not biblical. God’s warning to visit iniquity on future generations is part of the Old Testament Law. A generational curse was a consequence for a specific nation (Israel) for a specific sin (idolatry). The history books of the Old Testament (especially Judges) contain the record of this divine punishment meted out.

The cure for a generational curse has always been repentance. When Israel turned from idols to serve the living God, the “curse” was broken and God saved them (Judges 3:9,15;1 Samuel 12:10-11). Yes, God promised to visit Israel’s sin upon the third and fourth generations, but in the very next verse He promised that He would show “love to a thousand [generations] of those who love me and keep my commandments” (Exodus 20:6). In other words, God’s grace lasts a thousand times longer than His wrath.

For the Christian who is worried about a generational curse, the answer is salvation through Jesus Christ. A Christian is a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). How can a child of God still be under God’s curse (Romans 8:1)? The cure for a “generational curse” is repentance of the sin in question, faith in Christ, and a life consecrated to the Lord (Romans 12:1-2). “

Read more:http://www.gotquestions.org/generational-curses.html#ixzz3dKXTCvHD

From Pastor Larry Huch in Charisma Magazine:

http://www.charismamag.com/spirit/spiritual-warfare/16463-9-ways-to-break-generational-curses

“You don’t have to let sin and shame cripple you. These steps can help you discover freedom from your past.

1. RECOGNIZE THE CURSE. In order to get set free and stay free, you have to admit you have a problem. That sounds simple, but we live in a day and age of denial. No matter what has happened to us in our lives, each of us are responsible for the choices and decisions we make. If you really want to be free, you will accept that responsibility.
2. BREAK THE CURSE. As we apply God’s Word and power to our lives, and as we choose to walk in righteousness and obedience to God, the chains of bondage will be broken. There are three steps to breaking a generational curse:
3. (1) Give your life to Jesus; the blood of Jesus removes our sin; (2) Fight the battle with spiritual weapons (such as the Word of God and the armor of God); and (3) Regain control over the power of your will. When Jesus shed His blood, he bought back our willpower. Through the blood of Jesus, we can say no.
4. REVERSE THE CURSE. There are three keys you can use to reverse the curse and live in victory: (1) Recognize your enemy. We battle not with flesh and blood. Our enemy is Satan, and the battle is spiritual. (2) Forgive people who have hurt you. (3) Treat causes, not symptoms (for example, insecurity, jealousy or fear).
5. RELEASE THE POWER OF LOVE. To become people whose lives are transformed by the love of God, we must not only get rid of what holds us captive and keeps us in bondage, but we must also be filled up with love–for God, for self and for others. Unconditional love will release blessing. To know more of the love of God in your life, love those who have hurt you, those who have opposed you and those who have sinned against you.
6. DEVELOP A GODLY ATTITUDE. A good attitude does not make everything go perfectly all the time. Matthew 5:45 tells us that God sends the rain on the just and the unjust. But our attitude determines whether the rain will water the seeds of our harvest or wash those seeds away. Get serious about where you are going with God by getting your attitude lined up with His Word, having faith and trusting in Him.
7. ALIGN YOUR WORDS WITH GOD’S WORDS. Your words give evidence of your faith, and they should reflect God’s good purposes for you. Exchange your negative words for positive words, exchange your negative thoughts for positive thoughts, and exchange your negative actions for positive actions.
8. ACCEPT GOD’S ACCEPTANCE. Jesus didn’t come to condemn us or punish us. He came to give us hope that our lives really can be different. We don’t have to live under the burdens of pain, hurt, shame or sorrow. All the power in heaven is available to you to set you free from every chain that binds you. Corrie ten Boom said, “There is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still.”
9. WALK IN OBEDIENCE. In order to break free from the curses and walk in freedom, you must learn to walk in obedience to God’s ways. We don’t have to be perfect or without mistakes, but our hearts need to be surrendered and pliable toward God. We need to be moving forward in the things of God every day of our lives. Today’s decisions determine our tomorrows. There is a miracle on the other side of your obedience. “

Larry Huch is founder and senior pastor of New Beginnings Christian Center in Dallas, Texas. He and his wife, Tiz, have planted six churches in the United States and Australia.

From Beth Moore: http://www.todayschristianwoman.com/articles/2004/may/beth-moore-breaking-free-generational-curse-sin.html

Beth Moore:  IS THERE A GENERATIONAL CURSE FOR SIN?

“A. Exodus 20:5 says, “You shall not bow down to [idols] or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me.”

The word punishing in this verse proves a stumbling block for some people. The King James Version translates this as visiting, which is more reflective of the original Hebrew word paqadh, meaning to inspect, review, number, deposit, or visit in the sense of making a call. It’s also used for taking a census.

Ezekiel 18 assures us God doesn’t punish children for their parents’ sins. God clearly says, “I will judge you, each one according to his ways” (v. 30). I believe God is numbering or reviewing those who have been adversely affected by the sins of their parents and grandparents. For instance, if a pollster took a census of the number of alcoholics in three generations of an alcoholic patriarch’s family, the head count likely would be very high. Why? Because alcoholism was deposited in the family line. It came calling, and an unfortunate number of children and grandchildren answered the door.

Can you think of any negative traits or habits in your life that have been in your family line for generations? Perhaps you can identify negative patterns such as alcoholism, verbal or physical abuse, pornography, racism, bitterness, or fear. These areas of bondage are anything you may have learned environmentally, anything to which you may be genetically predisposed, or any binding influence passed down through other means. Whatever the bondage may be, the Lord wants to rebuild, restore, and renew these areas of devastation.

We must face generational strongholds head-on. If we don’t, they can remain almost unrecognizable—but they don’t remain benign. Family strongholds continue to be the seedbed for all sorts of destruction. Oftentimes we’ve grown up with these chains and they feel completely natural. We consider them part of our personality rather than a strangling yoke.

Thankfully, Christians aren’t doomed to live with our families’ sins. The Cross of Calvary is enough to set us free from every yoke; God’s Word is enough to make liberty a practical reality, no matter what those before us left as an “inheritance.”

Before we parents die of fright, let’s remember God is the only perfect parent. He’s not cursing three or four generations over a little parental irritability. In fact, I don’t believe he’s calling a curse down on anyone. As believers under the New Covenant who have been cleansed by Christ’s blood, I think the concept of generational sin applies to us through its powerful repercussions instead. I believe God is referring to a natural phenomenon described poignantly in Hosea 8:7, “They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.” Parents and grandparents must be very careful what they sow because it may reap the wind in their own lives and a whirlwind in the lives that follow.”

Paula White breaking generational curses:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiSmmrQSQRA&list=PLNjOddnh1PBL9lyPW0mDuBItGfCgmqhm_&index=5

Full blog role:  https://jeworthen.wordpress.com/author/jwtn/

 

The Supernatural Move of the Holy Spirit

In 1970’s to 80’s we saw one of the greatest spiritual awakenings of all times. Evangelism was rampant in America, and we elected one of the greatest Presidents, Ronald Reagan. More people heard the gospel, more received Christ, and more saw the evidence of signs and wonders and a supernatural move of God and the Holy Spirit. There were healings, and miracles and testimonies and a powerful move of God, and a supernatural move and power of the Gifts of the Spirit.

I covered the Occult and what has evolved in America, especially with this ungodly move by Hollywood and the secular to entice our youth into the glamorization of the supernatural and evil of Satan. But there is another supernatural move, that once was prevalent before the “politically correct” atheist, socialist fools in Washington sought to take Christ and prayer out of our schools, our Pledge of Allegiance, American history, and government. Wherefore, now we have a serious problem, and true facts are not represented in Common Core, schools, or state and local government. There is a disconnect. I believe that disconnect is Jesus Christ being cast out with the bathwater. Our Lord has commanded us to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world as Christians, but we see little evidence of the influence of Christianity. Even Glenn Beck this week said the same thing I, and a handful of friends that are public are saying, “Where are the
Christians?”

We need in America, Revival, and we need a Holy Ghost move of God Almighty and to bind the devil out of our schools, government, state and local, and Federal, and to elect good Christian men and women who STAND for the word of God, and our US Constitution. There is only one way to achieve that power, and that is a supernatural move of Christ and for all who call themselves Christian to be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. First, there has to be a communication of knowledge. Without at least some Biblical teaching no one can become a Christian, and no Christian can live a victorious life. That only comes with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And if HE isn’t living inside you, and you do not have His special Gifts, then you know not the move of God. That’s why so many Christians live defeated lives. That is why so many just cloister themselves with other Christians, in groups, but, have no victory, do not have the boldness and power to speak out against the tyrannies all around us, and stay in apathy.

The Christian and the Holy Spirit: Is a discussion of the Holy Spirit who is the third member of the Godhead, of Trinity. This Step teaches us who the Holy Spirit is and how He works in the lives of individuals. It shows us how we may have HIM working in our own lives and what the results can be. It teaches us how we may have HIS power continually energizing us. Jesus said, “I came that they (you and I and all Christians) might have life, and might have it abundantly.” John 10:10. There are so few Christians filled with the Holy Spirit, because of false teachings which are directly against the words and mandates that Jesus left us with. Did HE not say He before He ascended into Heaven that he would leave us the “comforter” the Holy Spirit to dwell within us? There is so much lack of knowledge and pride with this topic. But Jesus also said, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold on to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and Mammon. But seek first HIS Kingdom, and HIS righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.” Matthew 6:24-33

“ I CAN Be Born Again and Spirit Filled
WHO IS GOD?
God is described in the Bible for only one reason: because He wants you to have a revelation and understanding of Himself. God, Who is invisible, desired to communicate with man so much that He manifested Himself as “the Word made flesh,” in the Person of Jesus Christ, His Son. His existence is not a matter of debate. The fact that He “Who is invisible and all powerful” exists is shown in the creation itself. Your acceptance of Who He is becomes the starting-point of your faith.

God is Holy
God does not conform to a standard of holiness; He is that standard. 1 Samuel 2:2 declares, “There is no one holy like the Lord, Indeed, there is no one besides Thee, Nor is there any rock like our God.” God is holy, and no unrighteousness could exist in Him. Because of His holiness we do not judge His Word. His Word judges us.

God is Just
Depending on how they compare to God’s character, things are either just or unjust. God sentences the wicked and rewards the righteous according to His Own standards of what is right or wrong. On our own we could never meet God’s standard of righteousness. Being totally just, God cannot allow unrighteousness to be unpunished because it isn’t an agreement with His character. There is a distinct separation between God and unrighteous man.

God is Merciful
God is compassionate, and full of loving kindness toward man. In His mercy, He realizes that sinful, guilty man cannot measure up to His standard of righteousness without help. But if you will first believe that God is merciful, you have taken the first step in putting yourself in the position to receive His mercy. It is God’s mercy that provides a way for your salvation from sin’s wages:
“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23 KJV).
“He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5).

God is Love
God is Love, and love always gives. God gave you the most precious Possession He had: His Only begotten Son. Love seeks the welfare of another. God was seeking the best for you when He gave His Son to end the separation of sin between you and Himself. John 3:16 reveals His love toward you:
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever
Believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.”

God is Truth
God cannot lie. He is true to all that He says: “God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? (Numbers 23:19).
God’s Word does not conform to reality. Reality conforms to God’s Word, for God’s Word is what created reality when He spoke the world into existence. All things made by God’s Word are subject to His Word, for He is Truth.

God is Omniscient
God is all wise and knows all things. He knows everything that ever was or will be. He knows the everything that isn’t but could be. All of this knowledge does not come from outside of Himself, and it causes no confusion. Hebrews 4:13b says that “all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” God is perfect wisdom, so He can devise perfect plans and use perfect ways to accomplish them. His wisdom sees everything in focus, and everything in proper relation, with all things working for an intended goal. God works in wisdom for His intended glory, and for the highest good of the greatest number of people over the longest span of time. What God does cannot be improved upon. He deals with you in perfect wisdom!

God is Omnipresent
He is present everywhere, close to everything, next to everyone. Psalm 139 declares that there is no place where man can possibly hide from Him. God fills heaven and earth.
Because He is infinite, God knows no limits. Don’t try to put limits on God’s presence, for He has so much for you. He knows you through and through because He made you, and best of all He loves you: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him” (John 14:23). God is in you and every believer.

God is Omnipotent
Nothing is too difficult for God to do, for He is all powerful. He gives power to those who serve Him, yet His Own power is never diminished. Everything that God does is done without effort, one task never being more difficult than another. How marvelous it is that your all powerful God is also good, true and merciful! Best of all, He wants to be powerful in your everyday life. Ephesians 1:19 says that He wants you to know “the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.” The Christian life is a “light burden” to bear because it is lived by God’s power in you, not by your own power.

WHO IS THE TRINITY?
The mystery of the Trinity is accepted by faith. God’s Word reveals that three Persons exist in the Godhead, yet they are One God. Each Person is co-equal with the other Two, yet none of Them are more or less God than the Other.
The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit do differ, functionally. The Son has voluntarily subjected Himself unto the Father, and the Holy Spirit is the One Who abides in all believers at the command of the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit carries out the purposes of the other Two.
Throughout the Bible, the three Persons in the Godhead are seen:
1. At Creation. God created the heavens and the earth (Gen 1:1), and Jesus was present, too (John 1:3). The Holy Spirit was also there, waiting to actively bring forth God’s spoken Word (Gen. 1:2b).
2. In the Incarnation. Three Persons were spoken of to Mary (Luke 1:35). The Holy Spirit would come upon her, the power of the Most High would overshadow her, and the Holy Offspring would be the Son of God.
3. At Christ’s baptism (Luke 3:21, 22). Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit descended on Him as a dove, and the Father spoke, “Thou art my beloved Son.”
4. In the Atonement (Heb. 9:14). Here you see the blood of Christ, the eternal Spirit, and the offering without blemish
5. In the Resurrection. At Jesus’ resurrection the Scripture speaks of the Father (Acts 2:32), the Son (John 10:17, 18) and the Holy Spirit (Rom. 1:4).
6. In prayer we are to pray to the Father (Matthew 6:9), we pray in Jesus’ Name (John 14:13, 14), and the Holy Spirit intercedes for us (Rom. 8:26, 27).
7. Jesus Himself recognized three Persons in the Godhead. He prayed to the Father (Luke 23:34), He said, “I am the Way to the Father” (John 14:6), and He promised the coming of the Holy Spirit (John 14:16).
8. In the Great Commission. Jesus said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”

RECONCILED TO GOD
Because God is pure, holy and righteous He cannot look upon sin and disobedience. Men cannot do right before God because man’s righteousness is like “filthy rags” to Him. A great separation stands between God and sinners. Because God is just, there is a judgment of man’s sin. Man was sentenced to die three different deaths as a result of Adams sin: First, there is a physical death. Genesis 3:19 says that “you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Next is the spiritual death. Romans 5:12 says “just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.” Finally, there is eternal death spoken of in Revelation 20:15: “And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”
Because God is merciful toward you, and all knowing, He had a perfect plan in which to demonstrate His mercy toward you and justice toward you at the same time. The price was high yet God’s love knows no limit. He gave His Only begotten Son to take your judgment, the death which was upon men because of Adam’s sin. Jesus Christ Himself bore in His body every one of your sins and diseases when He hung on the cross:
“Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him” (Isaiah 53:4-6).
Jesus Christ abolished the sin that separated you and God, and you became God’s child when you received Christ as Savior and Lord. Now the penalty for your sin has been satisfied and you have life instead of death. You have a new life ahead!

WHO IS THE HOLY SPIRIT?
The Holy Spirit has all of the attributes of God because He is God. He is equal with the Father and the Son:
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all” (2 Corinthians 13:14).
His personality is described through all of the New Testament. Here are some of His characteristics:
1. He can be grieved. Ephesians 4:30 says, “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”
2. He can be resisted, according to Acts 7:51 which says, “You men who are stiffnecked…are always resisting the Holy Spirit…”
3. Acts 9:31 tells us that He desires to comfort all believers, personally: “So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace, being built up; and, going on in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit…”
4. The Holy Spirit creates and gives life, just as He created new spiritual life within you when you were born again. Job recognized this fact: “The Spirit of God has made me, And the breath of the Almighty gives me life” (Job 33:4).
5. He dwells with you. “…that is the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because he abides with you, and will be in you” (John 14:17).
6. Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would not glorify Himself, but that He would glorify Christ: “He shall glorify Me; for He shall take of Mine, and shall disclose it to you” (John 16:14).
Now that you are a Christian, the Holy Spirit wants to glorify Christ in your life. He wants to confirm the truth of God’s Word to you and give you power for Christian service.
RECEIVING THE HOLY SPIRIT
When you were born again by receiving Christ as you Savior, you received the Person of the Holy Spirit. Without Him there could be no indwelling of God. This explains the freedom and joy that you received at the new birth, for the Holy Spirit gave you peace with God. This same experience happened to the disciples in John 20:22:
“And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit.”

This was not Pentecost, but it was a new spiritual beginning. The same word for “breathed” is used in Genesis 2:7 when God “formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostril the breath of life.” Earthly life began for Adam with the breath of God. Spiritual life began for you with the breath of God: the Spirit of God Himself!

THREE BAPTISMS
Baptism Into Christ’s Body
Three baptisms take place in the believer. You were baptized in the Body of Christ when you were born again:
“For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, and whether slaves or free, and we were made to drink of one Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:13).
The candidate for baptism is the believer who is repenting of sin and accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior. The Baptizer is the Holy Spirit Himself, and the medium for baptism is the Body of Jesus Christ. It was at this time that you were indwelt by the Holy Spirit:
“But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you” (Romans 8:11).
In simple terms, the Holy Spirit lives in you to give you God’s life and presence. At the same time, you are baptized (introduced) into the Body of Christ to find your place among the other members.
Water Baptism

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). The candidate for water baptism is yourself—and I highly recommend that you are water baptized as soon as possible. The baptizer is a qualified disciple of Jesus Christ, and the medium into which you are baptized is that of water.
The mode of baptism varies according to tradition, but the original Greek word baptize actually means “to immerse.” The Bible says that when Jesus was baptized He came “up out of” the water, so again we see baptism as immersion into the water. This is highly symbolic. It shows the washing of regeneration:
“He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior…” (Titus 3:5, 6).

Water baptism also symbolizes Christ’s death, burial and resurrection:
“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me” (Galatians 2:20). Death is shown when the candidate for baptism is taken down into the water, burial is shown when the person is totally immersed in water, and resurrection is shown through the rising out of the water.

Baptism With The Holy Spirit
Receiving the promised gift of the Holy Spirit for power is the third type of baptism which believers can receive. The candidate for being baptized with the Holy Spirit is the water-baptized believer. Some individuals are baptized in the Holy Spirit before being baptized in water (Acts 10:44-48), but you can only receive this baptism if you are a born-again child of God. The Baptizer is Jesus Christ. Just as the Holy Spirit baptized you in the Body of Christ, now Jesus Christ wants to baptize you with the Holy Spirit Who is, of course, the baptismal Medium:
“I baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit” (Mark 1:8).
Just as you are physically flooded by water in the act of water baptism, so God wants to flood your life with His Own character through the baptism of the Holy Spirit:
“…and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has given to us” (Romans 5:5). You receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit so that God can empower you to develop and express your new life in Jesus Christ. Recognizing the work of the Holy Spirit in your life is essential for proper Christian growth. The three types of baptism (and three is a number of perfection) are clearly indicated in the account of Saul’s conversion (Acts 9:1-19) and in the salvation of the Gentiles who were at the house of Cornelius (Acts 10:44-48). Look these up in your Bible and study them closely.

WHAT THE HOLY SPIRIT DOES IN YOU
He gives you authority to witness. Acts 1:8 says, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”
1. The Holy Spirit will cause you to worship God, for He glorifies God: “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24).
2. He manifests power in your prayer life: “And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God” (Romans 8:26, 27).
3. He helps you understand the Scriptures: “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God” (1 Corinthians 2:12).
4. He gives you spiritual gifts: “…so that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ,…” (1 Corinthians 1:7).
5. He will produce God-like qualities within you, and cause you to act like the child of God whom you have become. The Holy Spirit wants to be your source of direction, strength and comfort. He wants to fill your life with the abundance of all that God has for you.

RECEIVE THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
Believe God’s Word I know that God must have highly esteemed the baptism of the Holy Spirit, for He prophesied about it: “And it will come about after this that I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and daughters will prophesy, Your old men will dream dreams, Your young men will see vision. And even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days” (Joel 2:28, 29).
John the Baptist and Jesus Himself also prophesied about the baptism of the Holy Spirit:
“John answered and said to them all, “As for me, I baptize you with water; but He who is mightier than I is coming, and I am not fit to untie the thong of His sandals; He Himself will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire.” (Luke 3:16).
“…but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
You must first know that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a gift that God wants you to have. Believe that God wants to give you His best, just as He gave His best when He gave you His Son, Jesus Christ. If Jesus, the disciples and the early church were all baptized in the Holy Spirit, then you should be, too. You are a member of the same Body, and God will withhold no good thing from you:
“If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? (Luke 11:13).
God is not a respector of persons. Many feel that they have to become “good enough” to receive the baptism with the Holy Spirit. On the contrary, it is the reverse: you receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit to empower you to do better.
Ask For Him
Jesus said that God would give the Holy Spirit to those who would ask. Is that different from asking Jesus to be your Savior? It certainly is! In John 14:17 Jesus called Him the Spirit of truth Whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him.” To get saved you had to behold Jesus. No one preached to you about the Holy Spirit; they told you about Jesus Christ. But now you know the Holy Spirit, because you received Him when you were born again. You only have to ask the Father for Him.
Praise The Lord
Expect the Lord to give you a new language of praise, just as He gave the disciples in Acts 2:4:
“And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.”
They “began to speak,” just as you must “begin to speak.” Then as you speak, know that it is the Holy Spirit Who gives you the utterance. Praise Him in your new language.
Believe You Received
The Father gives good gifts, and He will not give you a counterfeit. Receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit by faith, just as you received salvation by faith. If your heavenly language does not flow immediately, do not doubt that you have received. Just keep praising and thanking God.
God imparts the baptism of the Holy Spirit in two ways: 1. By sovereign outpouring (Acts 2:1-4; Acts 10:44-48). Many times Jesus simply baptizes people with the Holy Spirit anywhere they are, wherever they ask Him. Other times, they may not even as, and they are baptized with the Holy Spirit because of someone’s prayer for them. Jesus is a giver, and He loves to give people His most precious gift—the Spirit of God.
2. By the ministry of laying on of hands. Sometimes Christians may have another member of the Body of Christ lay hands on them to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:14-19).

YOUR EVIDENCE
On the day of Pentecost the evidence of the Holy Spirit baptism was seen through the apostles boldness in preaching, after which 3,000 people were saved! They also heard sounds of rushing wind, saw tongues of fire, and they spoke in tongues, praising God (Acts 2:1-4). The Holy Spirit overflowed from their spirits and filled up their senses, causing an overflow!
Acts 8:14-19 tells of the Samaritan Pentecost and the Bible doesn’t tell us what the evidence was. I do know that it was certainly something to be seen, for Simon the magician was present and the Bible says he “saw” what happened and wanted to buy the power of the Spirit. Needless to say he was harshly rebuked! Jesus’ blood is the only way that the Holy Spirit could be purchased for mankind.
When the apostle Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit the “scales” which had represented spiritual blindness disappeared from his eyes. Later he told the Corinthians, “I speak with tongues more than you all.” Though the Bible does not specify, Paul probably received the gift of speaking with other tongues when he was filled with the Holy Spirit, since that is when others received the gift (Acts 9:17-19). We know by his own testimony in 1 Cor. 14 that he prayed in tongues.
At the Roman Pentecost, the baptism of the Holy Spirit was given by God to Gentiles who believed on His Son. This happened while Peter was preaching to them, and suddenly the Holy Spirit came upon all who were present. They immediately responded by speaking in tongues and exalting God (Acts 10:45, 46).
At the Greek Pentecost the Holy Spirit came upon some believers and they began to speak in tongues and prophesy (Acts 19:1-6). All who received the Holy Spirit demonstrated supernatural power.

WHY YOU SHOULD SPEAK IN TONGUES
You don’t have to speak in tongues if you don’t want to—God will not force you to. However, when you yield your tongue to the Holy Spirit you indicate your willingness to yield the rest of your body to Him. It is your tongue which rules over the rest of your body: “For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well” (James 3:2).
As a believer you function on two levels: the spiritual level and the natural level. The natural level refers to your five senses; of those five senses your tongue is the only one that allows you to communicate with God. All Christians use the natural earthly level of communication with God when they pray. The Bible calls this speaking with the “tongues of men.”
When entering into worship and praise, however, many people feel limited when using only “tongues of men.” Often, repetition sets in. It is there that God frees us with His supply for another level of worship: the “tongues of angels” spoken of in 1 Corinthians 13:1. This is also called “tongues.” Your heavenly language gives you a new capability: you can now communicate with God without the limitations of your natural mind.

“For one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men, but to God; for no one understands, but in his spirit he speaks mysteries. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful” (1 Corinthians 14:2, 14). The Holy Spirit in you already understands God’s thoughts and His ways. Now He wants to communicate to God accordingly, and He wants to speak those thoughts to you. While you natural tongue is controlled by your mind, your “unknown” tongue speaks by the Spirit of God.
You should speak in tongues simply because this is one evidence of the Holy Spirit inside you. Speaking in tongues is one way that God builds you up, spiritually: But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit;…” * Booklet from Marilyn Hickey Ministries

IT IS A SECRET LANGUAGE IN PRAYER BETWEEN YOU AND GOD. The devil cannot hear…and if you don’t know what to pray, tongues edifies, and tongues say what you don’t know how. It is a GIFT!

Benny Hinn’s book, The Anointing, offers much insight into “who” the Holy Spirit really is, and how “He” should be treated. He also talks about his first encounter as a young man with the late Katherine Kuhlman in this quote when she had to decide on a man she was in love with vs God: “ I had to make a choice. Would I serve the man I loved or the God I loved? I knew I could not serve God and live with Mister. [She called Waltrip “Mister” from the very first time she met him]. No one will ever know the pain of dying like I know it, for I loved him more than I loved life itself. And for a time, I loved him even more than God. I finally told him I had to leave. God had never released me from that original call. Not only did I live with him, I had to live with my own conscience, and the conviction of the Holy Spirit was almost unbearable. I was tired of trying to justify myself. I saw a street sign. It said simply, “dead end.” There was heartache, heartache so great it cannot be put into words. If you think it’s easy to go to the Cross, it’s simply because you’ve never been there. I’ve been there. I know. “(So have I with divorces, estranged children who hate, and do not understand your walk with Christ, as well as the suicide of a 19 year old bi-polar son. Yes I know her pain, and understand. For my last divorce too, in 1982, God clearly said to me, when I got saved a year later, “Now you are mine alone, there will be no more marriages.” I was only 43.) “And I had to go alone. I knew nothing about the wonderful filling of the Holy Spirit. I knew nothing of the power of the mighty third person of the Trinity which was available to all. I just knew it was four o’clock on Saturday afternoon and I had come to the place in my life where I was ready to give up everything – even Mister – and die. I said it out loud: “Dear Jesus, I surrender ALL…I give it all to you. Take my body. Take my heart. All I am is yours. I place it in your wonderful hands.” (I, in essence as I sit alone, live alone, write alone, call on HIM alone, have too, surrendered ALL.) To me, when denying the Gifts of the Spirit, it puts you in danger of blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, which to God, is the unpardonable sin. How can you deny what God left for us as a gift?

Benny said, “The truth is that the glory of God is the person and presence of God –the glory is the Holy Spirit. When you experience HIS presence –the overwhelming realization that God Almighty is so near, you can almost reach out and touch HIM (in the supernatural) –then you have experienced the glory of God. You feel the warmth of HIS love, the comfort of HIS peace. THIS IS AN ANNOINTING, in a sense, of course, an anointing that brings the presence.” Thank you Benny. For I could not have done my paintings without HIS presence after the death of my son, I missed so much. I could not sit here now, starting at 5am without HIS presence and inviting the Holy Spirit to help me. For it is HE who guides, loves, and envelopes me with the warmth of his wonderful presence. I could do NOTHING, I am convinced in spite of my physical limitations, without my loving Holy Spirit. Nor could I STAND in Christ Jesus, and politic, speak out, yet on other occasions, have the agape’ love and compassion without my Holy Spirit. He cannot and should Not be denied. It is a gift…a free gift, that is so precious. I am Blessed! The Holy Spirit I know Healed me of a mini stroke after my son’s suicide, healed me, cared for me loved me. Thank you Jesus for your gift to me. It is the evidence of the magnificent wonders that I will see when I meet you Lord in Heaven and see my son once more.

IN THY PRESENCE
Lord, what a change within us one short hour
Spent in thy presence will prevail to make!
What heavy burdens from our bosoms take,
What parched grounds refresh as with a shower.
We kneel, and all around us seems to lower;
We rise, and all the distant and the near,
Stands forth in sunny outline, brave and clear.
We kneel, how weak; we rise, how full of power.
Why, therefore, should we do ourselves this wrong.
Or others, we are not always strong.
That we are ever overborne with care,
That we should ever weak or heartless be,
Anxious or troubled when with us is prayer,
Joy and strength and courage are with thee.
–Author Unknown

Benny Hinn Who Is the Holy Spirit?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nz8PQZjXL0k

Full blog role:  https://jeworthen.wordpress.com/author/jwtn/

The Supernatural And Occult

There is so much from Hollywood movies and tv on the Occult now more than ever before.  It is demonic.  Youth are looking for the supernatural in all the wrong places.  One of the 10 Commandments says, “Thou shalt have no other Gods before me.”  The secularist and Socialists now teaching public schools have taken prayer out, now taking God out of the Pledge of Allegiance, and in it’s place the Bible has been replaced by the books from the pit of hell.  The Occult rampant today as never before!  Then too are horoscopes that God warns about playing with divination.  Harry Potter has been recommended reading in schools, and it is demonic.  No Christian child should be allowed to read or forced by any school to read.  Our moral compass and whole fiber of our society has fallen to Satan.

http://www.cbn.com/family/youth/elliott_horoscopes.aspx

Harry Potter book, horoscopes, witchcraft, Ouija boards, tarot cards, talking to the dead..

TV:  

The Whisperers, Once Upon a Time, Secrets and Lies, The X-Files, Grimm, Gravity Falls, True Blood, Millennium, Dominion, American Horror Story,  Roswell, Charmed, Constantine, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Lost Girl, 

Ghost Whisperer  (Jennifer Love Hewitt talking to the dead. She plays 

Melinda Gordon is a young woman who can communicate with the earthbound spirits of people who have died — and who seek her help. IT is demonic.)

God warns in all through the Bible about not talking to the dead.

Remember the STRANGE FIRE  in Leviticus 10:1-3.  “And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron (they were priests) took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the LORD, which He commanded them not. (This was “fire” which came from something other than the brazen Altar.  As such, it was not a type of Christ and Him Crucified and, therefore, could not be recognized by God.  It was the sin of Cain.  They attempted to put the “strange fire,” on the Altar of Incense, situated immediately in front of the Veil.  All false doctrine falls into this SAME category and thereby, presents a fearful spectacle.) *Expositors Study Bible

2.  “And there went out fire from the LORD (from the Ark of the Covenant, which passed through the Veil without burning it), and devoured them, and they died before the LORD.  (A short time earlier, fire had come out from this same place and consumed the sacrifice on the Altar [9:24].  Inasmuch as the Cross of

Christ was ignored here, that same fire came upon the sinner instead of the sacrifice.)  *Expositors Study Bible  

3.  Then Moses said unto Aaron, THIS is it that the LORD spoke saying, I will be sanctified in them who come near Me, and before all the people I will be glorified.  And Aaron held his peace.  (The Lord is saying by this statement that if men place on HIS Altar the workings of their own corrupt will, [worshiping false gods…or little gods, idol worship] what will be the result?  Judgment!” *Expositors Study Bible    

And God’s judgment came and took these 2 priests out …dead…in one instant! And I believe that HIS judgment is on all of us who “play ” at church.  Youth who mock and do not fear God?  You could be taken out he same way.  And when God is done, there will be no doubt WHO is Lord, and who can act in a supernatural power of retribution.  For the devil is defeated at the Cross and his days are numbered.   For HE says, THOU SHALT HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE ME.   What are other Gods?  Worshiping that which is not God Almighty, from tv, being involved in divination, even to worshiping dead people of the past, and putting up a shrine for them.  That is like worshiping Baal.   God prohibits pagan practices.  

Deuteronomy 18:9 “When you come into the land which the LORD your God gives you, you shall not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. 10. There shall not be found among you any one who makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire (human sacrifice), or who uses divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, 11. Or a charmer or a consulter, with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.   (The last is one who professed to call up the dead, and from them learn the secrets of the future.  All of these things had to do with witchcraft, and were not at all to be a part of Israel, nor are they to be a part of us, under Christ, not be involved in abominations.)   12.  For all who do these things are an abomination unto the LORD; and because of these abominations the LORD your God does drive them out before you.  13. You shall be perfect with the LORD your God. (The word “perfect” means single -hearted that is, pure IDOLATRY.)  

So who DO you worship?  The LORD? or false gods?  Baal?  Baal refers to the old Semitic storm or rain god, the fertility god of the Canaanite peoples, who was the chief contender with Jehovah for the worship of Israel.  Different gods were called the Baal of different regions.  Just as the tower of Babel, was built by mankind just after the flood in Shinar.  The story presumes that those surviving the flood had remained a unit.  The motive assigned was “let us make us a name ie monument to human achievement.  Sound familiar?  No?  What about One World Trade Center?  After 9/11 did America fall on her knees and repent to the LORD, and cry out to HIM?   No this high tower, is just like Baal, and was built on defiance, not repentance.   And something cataclysmic is going to happen, for God is judging us now, and the last Blood Moon is on Sukkot September 28th the Jewish Feast of the Tabernacle.    America has turned her back on God Almighty, with it’s politically correct false gods and doctrines, and the wrath of God Almighty, is going to make himself known!   Just as God killed Aaron’s two sons, many will again lose life.  Something is going to happen that will involve Israel, and the U.S.  But, if God hypothetically did take that new tower down, I don’t believe it would be by a terrorist but, by an act of God, in a natural disaster, letting the world know WHO HE IS!    Do you fear God?  I do. Always have.  He may be a loving God, but He is also a God of Judgment and wrath.  

Be careful whom you worship, and be careful who you hold high. 

The words of Jesus in Matthew 7:21-23  In this familiar passage our Lord declared, 

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but 

only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on 

that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive

 out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never

 knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'”

1 John 4

“Test the Spirits

4 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. 4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”

 

John Hagee: Angels and Demons and Exposing and 

Expelling Demons  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JrlvDBJDzk  

 Youth that hunger for the supernatural?  You are looking in all the wrong demonic places… For the God I serve with signs and wonders…and the move of the Holy Spirit, can give you more of the supernatural than you can imagine.  For what is coming will be nothing but spectacular and cataclysmic.  Are you ready? For whether you believe in post or pre trib we will go through tribulation, but you can also go through magnificent signs, wonders, healings, and miracles from Jesus.  He is there for all of us if we only call HIS name!   

Sid Roth: Breaking the end time prophetic codes:  

http://sidroth.org/store/products/breaking-end-time-prophetic-codes-7-cd-series-perry-stone-code-1909??src=STsc

https://www.getv.org/Videos/Watch/2769FB31-5907-4065-99E7-D63D74D7A45C

The Three Heavens  (Angels and Demons) 

 Bill Winston…Exposing Demonic Forces

https://youtu.be/NnnEwNzTasQ

 

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Major Ezekiel Worthen

Link to my site of my 12th generation ancestor, Major Ezekiel Worthen (NH) who, along with his four sons, Ezekiel, Samuel, Jacob, and Enoch, fought in the Revolutionary War. I am proud of this ancestor, and I sincerely hope that I see him one day in Heaven. What a glorious day that will be!   If  I get passionate on here for love of my America, it is with this tremendous history of Christians who fought to make America free.  Thank you Lord..

Major Ezekiel Worthen.

Egypt, Israel, America And Mideast

Please pray for Egypt. I have had one Coptic Christian Egyptian friend, who I have known now for 11 years from another site. He loves Jesus and has been such a wonderful light for our Lord. His site now here down and cleared. Please pray for my friend in Cairo and ALL of Egypt.

http://video.foxnews.com/v/embed.js?id=2555536011001&w=466&h=263Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com

We all need to understand what is going on in Egypt and around the Arab world, DOES affect us here in the US. Obama now is pulling all stops to encourage Muslims here, and take down our US Constitution and our freedoms by Executive order before he leaves office. It is my belief as a Christian believing in Bible prophesy, that we are now in Ezekiel 38 and 39. I do believe that by September something cataclysmic is going to happen, which is the last Blood Moon on the Sukkot, the Jewish holiday. This current new tower in NYC went up in defiance, but NOT repentance! God’s judgement is on the WH, and on America now. Obama will push for Sharia law, and all that he can in the time he has left. Be sober, be vigilant, and know your enemy. And Stand. The Muslim Brotherhood was defeated in Egypt and Morsi is serving 20 years in jail. The MB in America is NOT on any terrorist list and should be, and advises Obama. We need to wake up..Get in your Bible, pray, and understand where we are for the first time in history we are seeing the end times play out. All you have to do is read Daniel, Isaiah, Ezekiel, (38-39) , Joel 2, I Thes., Matt 24, Revelations. And pray.

 

Add this to above on Egypt….And I hope and pray you all click and go in and play this video, see the photo of his Communist advisor back then Frank Marshall, and now add to it all his Muslim Brotherhood advisors..and understand WHAT America and Christians are up against …PLEASE…Add to that this Pope doing the devils work, calling Palestinian  leader Abbas, an “angel”, working with Hamas, their terrorist group bombing Israel, and it doesn’t take a genius, to not know we are for the first time in history seeing all of the end time prophesies happen all around us.  Please be vigilant.

God’s wrath and judgment is on us..and something is going to happen in the supernatural.  God bless you all….look up!

https://jeworthen.wordpress.com/…/warning-for…/

A fast history lesson for the secular media:

What you in the media don’t get.  I studied Ancient Civilization in college in my younger days.  When I got saved  and came to the Lord, Jesus, in repentance, the first thing I gravitated to was end time prophesies.  Who are the prophets?  They are in the Old Testament, Daniel, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Nehemiah, especially now Joel 2…then I Thessalonian, and Revelations.  All things put together for those who seek.  The European Union, 13 nations, Greece now trying to bow out, the 10 horns…out of which in one of these mid east countries now will come the Antichrist.  He is alive today..I believe it.  The Pope now too, figures into this..because they don’t want to have ISIS take down the Vatican, which is a part of the Caliphate, and the object too, in taking ALL of Western Civilization as they tried to do in the Ottoman period.  And who stopped both the Ottoman period AND later Hitler? Winston Churchill.  No wonder his bust in the White House as an insult went back to the UK…(all his Muslim friends.)  Iran (Persia in ancient civ, and Ezekiel 38 &39) all wanting to control Israel.  Israel does NOT occupy Israel.  THEY OWN it..given by GOD in Genesis 13!  They lived there, also Genesis, since God moved Abram (Abraham) from UR,  in Iraq,(Mesopotamia the first civilization)  by the top of where the Tigress and Euphrates meet, to Cannan (Israel) to the land of milk and honey.  God says, “I will bless those who bless my people and curse those who curse them” the Jews…ISRAEL!  Period. I am a Zionist…I am a member of CUFI , and I back Israel.  Even the Shah of Jordan, said the Jews owned Palestine and was there first.  In essence there is no Palestine!   This economy is going to collapse, because of the EU and 10 horns and them wanting to eliminate CASH…A cashless society? THAT dear media, is the 666 and a micro chip going in your head or hand.  And anyone who takes this chip, will NOT enter the Kingdom of God..(Revelations).  What other proofs in this disgusting world of hate and beheadings, lies, and greed, and even all this Gay rights, which is like Sodom and Gomorrah…do you need.  God is going to destroy. The tribulations are coming soon..Whether we Christians are going in the Rapture pre or post? I don’t know.  60 Minutes? Leslie Stahl, no more water way underneath in this whole world…Satelite Grace..CA, Turkey, Iran, Africa.. the whole world. The new fight will not be oil but water.  All that China is doing killing Elephants, leaving babies to die next to their dead mother..Arab’s and China buying up in America.  What China has done in New Guinna.. The poor people.. Now ravaging and putting chemicals into all the water there including not only rivers, but the ocean.  Whatever they touch they destroy…and they will join Russia, in the final war..Russia..Gog and Magog…Magog, Moscow.   Everything  for us believers is clear as can be..We know what is coming.  Do you?  Oh, I forgot, your all secularists, and don’t believe in God.  Good luck…My word

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Why “Christians” Throw Christians Under the Bus

The following below is a very good article from Freedom Outpost.  One which I agree wholeheartedly.  Christians in America for the most part are in “lala” land.  They are not “taught” the Bible, and continue to be secularized, instead of STANDING on Biblical principals, they know “nothing about”.  T.D. Jakes said this is now the most Biblically and scripturally illiterate generation in ALL of history.   The salvation message is not enough.  Used to be Christians read their Bible cover to cover at least once in their lifetime, studied, took courses, and digested the people, stories, and messages from the Genesis to Revelations.  They knew God’s intent in the “beginning”, knew the beneficial stories, (from reading, not a Hollywood crocked up movie ie Russel Crow doesn’t even believe in God and mocks him), and knew from Matthew to Revelations, how we were to STAND, and knew how it was going to end; and to be prepared.  No one is prepared, with end times all around us.  They are on pablum instead of meat.  And yes, to save themselves, adhere to secularism, and throw their brother under the bus.  Whereby, sin has ceased to exist.  And you don’t put your Christian children in a secular college, getting taught by some Socialist!!

Scott Buss May 31, 2015

“Why “Christians” Throw Christians under the Bus…And Then Run ‘Em over

Read more at http://freedomoutpost.com/2015/05/why-christians-throw-christians-under-the-bus-and-then-run-em-over/#fCdWOXvgYRXtQGAv.99

Leonard Ravenhill once said, “If Jesus had preached the same message that ministers preach today, He would never have been crucified.”
This is something to think about as we live in a very proud America defined by three things:

1. A population overwhelmingly comprised of professing Christians.
2. A landscape dotted by thousands and thousands of often very well attended professing Christian churches.
3. A culture utterly overrun and defined by anti-Christian worldviews, smoldering in its proud rebellion and on the verge of collapse.

Today in America, we have Transgender Kindergarten, enforced cross-dressing in our Army, Transgender Girl(?) Scouts, a lesbian Army general, purposeful , systematic economic bondage through man-made fiat currency, perpetual war in the name of peace, the perpetual surrender of freedom/liberty at home in the name of preserving freedom/liberty, the free (and often happy) surrender of our children to the anti-Christian State for Statist/satanic “education”, a national government that spies on us at a level that would make the KGB or Gestapo weep with envy, and a so-called “Christian” religion that enables and encourages all of it.

But everybody loves Jesus.

Well, nearly everybody, anyway, or so they say. Apparently, Leonard Ravenhill was on to something.

While, for generations now, we’ve been attending churches, reading Bibles, watching Veggie Tales, going to church camps, “getting saved” and laying claim to something we imagine and therefore proclaim to be Christianity, it seems fairly obvious, especially in this late hour, that many of us who dearly adore and regularly attend even the most “conservative Christian” churches in America are not actually down with biblically-defined Christianity. Not at all.

Truth be told, we seem to hate it; we seem to have a visceral disdain for the concept of Christ as King in practice right here and now in every realm of His creation (think: law, politics and economics). We tend to openly recoil at the mere suggestion that His people have been lovingly commanded and equipped to make disciples of the nations, teaching them to obey all that He has commanded, right here and now in every area of live, including law, economics, art, education and everything else. No, that Christianity is something that we were born hating, continue to hate, and have been conditioned to persistently reject at every turn through immersion in things like State-controlled “schools,” Corporate-controlled pop-culture, and, most importantly, professing Christian “churches” who are as opposed to the true life- and culture-changing Gospel-fueled Great Commission as anyone else.

It is these American churches and professing Christians are those most responsible for all of the rest; they are the gatekeepers between the Gospel and the world, and they have chosen to close the gate between the two, keeping the world “safe” from the confrontational, corrective Gospel command and rule of Christ the King. They’ve replaced the Gospel of the Kingdom of God with any number of convenient, marketable, man-centered and inherently popular counterfeits. They aim to give us just enough to “get us saved” and make us feel good about doing…well…pretty much whatever we want to do. I mean, if we’re saved and the Gospel is only about getting us saved, then what’s the big deal, right? Live and let live. Don’t sweat the details. Just go with the flow.

So it is that we have not sweated the details of the true Gospel and gone with the flow of the anti-Christian worldviews that are actively working to shape and dominate the culture in which we live. And we seem to love it even now – this tiny little fake gospel of ours – at least enough to clamp down on those annoying “religious zealots” and the “extreme” perspectives of some who actually, you know, take the Great Commission seriously.

We just love our Candy Christianity, our Toy Box Christianity, our Easy Button Christianity, our Magic Christianity, and our “Gospel in a Bottle” Christianity, each featuring our own personally assembled and diligently customized Mr. Potato Jesus-type toy savior. We love these play gospels and toy Jesuses, and we will defend what we love. So it is that we – the professing Christian church in America – have enabled and often ourselves become the most vigorous persecutors of those who really, truly stand for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

In loving, promoting and living out our favored counterfeit gospels rather than the Gospel, we’ve thrown biblical Christianity and, by natural extension, true Christians under the bus…a bus that is driven by professing Christians.

They’re the ones sending their kids to the State for anti-Christian “education” and tired of hearing that sort of thing called “sin.”

They’re the ones who love their contrived political theater and look to their favored Pagan Right/Pagan Left political and economic “experts” to save the day here in “the real world.” (See: Confronting the Gay Orwellian Party: Dragging the Pagan Right out of the closet and into the light.)

They’re the ones who want to keep their Mr. Potato Jesus in the safe position of being lord over their hearts, their prayer closets, their church activities, and some future heaven-type place out there somewhere, but never as lord over their approach to politics, business, and education right here and now.

They’re the ones who want a “Kingdom of God” that is always out there…separate…safely away from them. (See: Christianity in a Box: Containing the Contagion of Obedience to Christ.)

And they’re willing to run over anyone who gets in the way of that delusion.

Which brings us neatly ’round to one of the major duties of true Christians: Lovingly confronting and correcting the self-serving delusions of the proud and rebellious with the Gospel commands of Christ the King.

Even if doing so gets us thrown under the bus. And run over. By “Christians.”

Ultimately, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess, and every artistic, political, economic, and scientific thought will bow to Him as His Gospel conquers and makes all things new through His obedient people—all by His grace, all for His glory, and all to their eternal benefit.

–

If you appreciate articles like this, please feel free to check out more of Scott’s writing at FireBreathingChristian.com. ”

* Amen for this article!

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