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Whose Grave Are You Digging?

By williamraymondcollier On Dec 28, 2012 Politics | William Raymond Collier

grave digger

Progressives Digging A Pit FOR THEMSELVES!

 

William Raymond Collier

Is the American nation about to become a progressive gulag where everything good and noble and true is set aside for everything evil and ignoble and false? If we look in the natural, we’ll see, that, aside from Jesus Christ, there is no hope.

Progessives think they are digging a grave for God and His People, removing Him and His People from any position in their society where they might have any influence or say. Like Sam Donaldson said of the Tea Party, progressives say to God and His People, “this isn’t your country any more.”

Most Americans, spoon-fed by propaganda entertainment and partisan media, are actually, more or less, willing to go along with this high-speed decimation of their once great nation. Without a deep and real relationship with God, these Americans have only their human understanding, manipulated by falsehoods and concealment of truth, and they easily fall prey to their captor’s promises that if they surrender their rights they will experience virtual paradise!

On EVERY front the devilish and the vile blatantly promote their agenda while, brazenly and arrogantly, accusing the opponents of their evil of doing that evil themselves. Doing evil and blaming those who stand in its way is exactly how the progressive ideology works, indeed it is the heart of humanism. The first instance of a humanistic ideology was when Adam blamed Eve for the evil he had just commited!

On the fiscal cliff the Democrats have used their partisan media and clever tricks to convince 40% of voters that, if talks fail, as some say the Presidents WANTS, that it’s the GOP’s fault (Democrats, it is alleged, WANT the fiscal cliff to happen so they can convince Americans that it’s all the GOP’s fault, even though it isn’t solely their fault). Only 36% would blame the Democrats. The other 24% are simply “not sure”, but you can bet they are sure who their favorite celebrity dancer is!

On marriage, the assault on what it means to be a human being and the millenias-old definition of a family, with a father and a mother, is well under way. Not only do the proponents of a perversion of the family want to have some so-called “right” to their “lifestyle”, which is bad enough but is between them and God, but they also demand that everyone “recognize” their “marriage”, extend them the benefits of marriage, and, incidently, refrain from publicly calling their “marriage” wrong lest they be accused of a hate crime.

In Canada, for instance, their “Human Rights Commission” has labeled the Bible itself “hate literature” and jailed people for denying the moral validity of the “homosexual lifestyle”. Just recently CNN anchor Piers Morgan demanded that the Bible be changed because it is too “anti-gay”!

On murdering unwanted children in their mother’s womb and promoting “birth control” to foment adultery and fornication as normal and even positive, the state is now forcing people who conscientiously object to all this to literally pay for other people to access these things that the one footing the bill finds morally reprehensible. The one wishing to do the evil not only wants to do it in the privacy of their own life, but they demand that those who want nothing to do with these things pay for them for those who do!

Now comes the emotional appeal to the latest act of violence by a crazed killer to ban guns and, thus, strip Americans of their basic human right to self-defense. The rationalizations of the enemies of this right are maddening, moreso since, to many uneducated and propagenda-fed Americans, those rationalizations are the ONLY thing that is positively portrayed by the opinion shapers in society. It looks more and more like the progressive dream of a disarmed populace is coming closer, so close they can feel it.

The assualt on the public display and practice of religion under the auspices of a radical secular doctrine that says the state can be informed only by atheism and must discard any and all “religious” views or values is disgusting to anyone who knows the value of “religious” sentiment in promoting virtue, ethics, and even social stability. Those who hold to “religious views” are basically being told to “check your religious beliefs at the door” when voting.

What is worse, is that millions of people who claim to be Christians have bought this lie that our faith should not inform our politics and have willfully voted for people and policies that they SHOULD know contradict the high moral ethic taught to the Nations by the Word of God.

It is, to put it bluntly, ALL BAD, and there is no light at the end of the tunnel. This last election proved that the American People are morally and spiritually decadent and beyond hope: they WILL vote for their own enslavement, you can take that to the bank.

The consequences will be horrendous the world over. Not only will this see some horror in America like a revolution, civil war, or dictatorship, but it will leave a void in the world that will be filled by dictators and warmongers leading to an unravelling of the world order and the emergence of a global pandemic of violence and war.

In the natural, there is literally no hope whatsoever. Every day the American mass mind is falling into lock step with the constant drumbeat of manipulations and deception by their “media”: every day more people believe “gay marriage” is “OK”, that abortion isn’t really murder, that “guns are bad”, and that “religion” has no place or value in public life.

For the opponents of such evil, every day the chance to secure their own rights by winning people back to the American Way is fading and alternatives that do not depend on what some manipulated and under-informed “electorate” are looking harder to find as well.

Now is the time for prayer and fasting, and courage to never bend or submit, even if the consequences are being shipped off to some progressive gulag where the enemies of God will happily murder the People of God as their forebearers in the 20th century’s worse dictatorships once did.

But, for all that, there IS hope, and that hope is in Jesus Christ who came to this earth to deliver us from the worse bondage, our sin. Once we are delivered from sin, and death, nothing man does to us can hurt us, and even if we die on this earth, we live forever in Him. What is more, we do not have to base our hope on what is seen by the eye and heard by the ear: our hope comes from knowing that our God is an Awesome God, He is in charge, His Will is not going to be conquered by opposing power.

Progressivism is but one more humanisitic, anti-Christ philosophy that, should the Lord tarry, has no more power to defeat God and His People than any of those anti-Christ philosophies from the past who, raising their hand to strike down God’s People, fell into the pit they dug. In the end, should the Lord tarry, the progressives who build their gulag for the People of God will only be building a pit into which they, and not God’s People, will fall.

4 mentions: Bill Collier Juanita Berguson Dave Schneider Christian Web Watch
grave digger

Progressivism is but one more humanisitic, anti-Christ philosophy that, should the Lord tarry, has no more power to defeat God and His People than any of those anti-Christ philosophies from the past who, raising their hand to strike down God’s People, fell into the pit they dug. In the end, should the Lord tarry, the progressives who build their gulag for the People of God will only be building a pit into which they, and not God’s People, will fall.

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You Brood of Vipers- A Message of Joy after Tragedy

By paulgordoncollier On Dec 16, 2012 Current Events | Discipleship | Paul Gordon Collier

John the Baptist preaches a hard message of joy

My Pastor, Chris Geisler of the Edgeboro Moravian Church, began his sermon message today pointing his finger at the congregation, packed for the third day of Advent, the day of Joy, with this message-

“You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”

He pointed to the congregation, let me say that again.  He pointed to the congregation.  I don’t know if it was intended, and I am not sure how the congregation picked up on it, but I am sure there were/are members of our congregation who are fleeing from the wrath to come.

The one thing I love most about our Pastor is he is a man deeply led by love.  The name Pastor does not always fit the person, for some Pastors are more Prophetic, some are more Evangelical, some are more Teacher-focused.  But our Pastor is truly Pastoral, a Guide, one who is first and foremost motivated by a desire to share his love, one who walks deeply in direct experience of Christ’s love for him.

Knowing this about our Pastor, I found it startling that he began his sermon with such harsh words, pointing directly at the congregation.  To be sure, these are the words of John the Baptist, speaking to his own gathering, like Pastor Chris speaking to his own gathering.

Why would a man so deeply led by love start off with such harsh words, even if they were not his own, and point directly at the congregation as he began to utter them?  Pastor Chris had an assignment this week, to preach the joy of the Third Sunday of Advent, and he began his joy with a biting accusation.

I believe he wanted his congregation, of which I am a part, to experience a little of the startling truth which that gathering who came together to hear John the Baptist speak must have experienced, to be convicted in truth to repent and be bearers of fruit in the Kingdom of God.

His assignment was a particularly difficult one in the wake of the Newtown darkness, and how he wove in that dark event into his message of joy is a further revelation to me of why a man of God so led by love would begin his sermon pointing at his own congregation with these words, “You brood of vipers….”

Pastor Chris spoke, near the end of his sermon, about the young man who performed such an evil act.  He speculated about what might have led, or significantly contributed to a young man seeking out and murdering children.  He didn’t claim to know for sure, but I would wager he is on the mark when he offered this thought:

“That young man must have been terribly alone.”

Pastor Chris went on to elaborate about what he meant (and I paraphrase here):

He must have had a lifetime of rejection and scorn and derision to lead him to such an act of evil.  John the Baptist, in his message to the ‘pit of vipers’ had one simple command, “Bear fruit.”  Obviously, John was speaking of fruit born through our love of Christ, but fruit nonetheless.  Our joy in Christ can only be fully expressed when we share His way, His love, His grace for us with those around us.

“Bring forth fruits worthy of repentance”, John the Baptist said.  Repentance means to turn back.  We turn back from our flesh and we turn towards Christ.  To do this, we must love Him and allow that love to be the source, the motive that connects us to the people around us.

That young man must have been terribly alone, Pastor Chris said.  This is not a message excusing this act of evil, nor is it all about the young man that Pastor Chris must have spoken those words.  Why, why was that young man left to feel so terribly alone?

Where was the body around him to share Christ’s joy, to share, in His love, a kind word, an act of generosity, to be a welcoming voice, to extend ourselves to people like this young man?  I imagine that a man such as Pastor Chris, a man led by love, was thinking of the children, the victims of the tragedy and the family and friends of those murdered and injured when he spoke those words, and yes, of the young man as well.

Allowing an absence of light invites a torrent of darkness.  That darkness can, and does, lead to great and terrible acts of evil, such as that man performed.  Not being a light can and does lead to murder, rape, violence against God’s children.  This must be a terrible pain for Pastor Chris to experience, through Christ’s heart, that anguish a Father feels when His children are slain.

But Pastor Chris, being a man so led by Christ’s love, must also feel the anguish of the loss of that young man.  As I wrote yesterday, God loves that young man and weeps for the loss of one of his own, who chose an eternal death.  That young man made that decision, to be sure, but we, as Christ’s hands and feet, have opportunities around us to speak against the dark and speak light into the lives of the people around us.

Pastor Chris, I believe, was exhorting we, the congregation, to extend ourselves, in Christ’s love, to everyone around us, for we never know what small measure of love can conquer a brooding darkness in someone’s life.  We can, through the Holy Spirit, prevent murder and rape and plunder by sharing the light of the Kingdom of God in our words, our deeds, our small gestures with the people God puts in front of us every day.

As Pastor Chris pointed out in his close, our faith is not our own.  He described an understanding of faith he held for a long time, that he had a personal relationship with God and God had a personal relationship with him.

But this is only half the equation, he pointed out.  We are called to live out the Kingdom of God, which is the domain where Christ reigns.  That domain exists within each and every one of the hearts of those who submit, in fear and love to the one true King.  To do so, the Kingdom of God can only be lived out by connecting to the body and witnessing the good news to the lost.

This is our joy, our only true, lasting joy, the faith, hope and love of the Kingdom extended through us by the power of the Holy Spirit.  This is the joy that leads us to extend ourselves in kindness and compassion and grace to those that the rest of the world would forget, would ridicule, would leave to feel as if they were ‘awfully alone’.

Where light is absent, darkness comes in like a flood.  Where light shines, darkness flees.  And our children have a role to play, right from the start, as Pastor Chris pointed out.  He exhorted them to speak kindness, to be an invitation to light and not a reinforcement of darkness in the lives of the children around them who are being consigned to ridicule, ostracism, derision, hate because they are poor, because they are skinny, because they are small, because they are ‘weird’.

Pastor Chris’s message was born of a great anguish that he demonstrated visibly in his tears and broken voice.  It was a joy to share with him in that anguish, that grief, and I pray to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit that those of us who were gathered would walk into that anguish so that we might be led, through it, to live out the joy of Christ’ Kingdom.

Our relationship with Christ does not end with belief in his sacrifice.  Our relationship with Christ is not experienced by seeking to feel love and blessed by Christ.  Our relationship is defined by the fruit that is bloomed from the brokenness of our bodies in a fallen world, from the anguish of the witness of death and darkness around us, from the love of Christ that we share with those around us because we can do nothing else.

We will not be broken, we will not be in anguish if we fail to see the world through Christ’s heart.  We cannot see the world, experience the world through Christ’s heart if we have not made Him our one and only Lord and Master, through love and fear.  If we do not daily repent, turn away, hour by hour, minute by minute, from our flesh and turn back to Christ’s way, then greater darkness enters our land.

Where light is absent, darkness comes in like a flood.  We are the only light, through Christ.  So repent, and bear fruit worthy of repentance.  Do not flee from judgment, but embrace the anguish, the brokenness, and step into joy.

Amen.

We will not be broken, we will not be in anguish if we fail to see the world through Christ’s heart. We cannot see the world, experience the world through Christ’s heart if we have not made Him our one and only Lord and Master, through love and fear. If we do not daily repent, turn away, hour by hour, minute by minute, from our flesh and turn back to Christ’s way, then greater darkness enters our land.

Where light is absent, darkness comes in like a flood. We are the only light, through Christ. So repent, and bear fruit worthy of repentance. Do not flee from judgment, but embrace the anguish, the brokenness, and step into joy.

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Baal or God- The Valley of Decision Made Clear by Newtown

By williamraymondcollier On Dec 15, 2012 Current Events | Defending Life | William Raymond Collier

Is Baal our new Guiding Light in America?

Living Too Long In The Valley of Decision

I Kings 18: 21
And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.
Joel 3: 11-14
Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O…Lord.  Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about.  Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great.  Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.
America has been in the valley of decision for quite some time, and many are frustrated, they want to see a final reckoning, one way or another instead of this perpetual in-between state. For most, however, the choice is limited in scope to politics, liberal or conservative, but that is not the choice confronting us.
The Newtown murders underscore the state of affairs, but in some ways they are, dare I even say it, a distraction. While we all mourn the murdering of children and adults in an elementary school, we seem not to notice the fact that TODAY ALONE over 2300 babies were murdered in their mother’s wombs in the US and over 75,000 were murdered in their mother’s wombs worldwide.
While the godless, refusing to acknowledge the real root of evil behind the murder spree in Newtown, focus on taking more freedoms from innocent people, and while others defend those freedoms, nobody is talking about the innocent babies killed under the cover of “law” in this land. This is not the only distraction.
There are other pressing issues that are being ignored at our peril. There is the fact that Al Qaeda in Syrian may have already obtained chemical weapons, which will be used against Americans on our soil at some point in time, making the Newtown murder spree seem like a small blip by comparison. There is the giant fiscal cliff and regulatory cliff this nation is facing and that a godless government is actually orchestrating for no better reason than that t0 increase their power and feather the nest of their supporters and donors.
Then there is this rather blunt truth- that those who ask “where was God” forget that in 1963 our very own Supreme Court formally stated that God’s presence through the prayer of the students was no longer welcome in our schools. This does not mean that God wasn’t there, but it bears being reminded that we are in fact a godless People from root to branch and, as such, all we can expect for formal rejection of God’s presence in our public life is “sin, dipped in misery, and covered in sorrow.”
There is something even more important that should be said right now, and I am going to say it- America must decide whether our state and our society derive their authority and sovereign existence from God or from man. If God is God, the prophet would warn, then follow Him. But if ideology is God, follow it. Staying too long in the valley of decision is a dangerous thing, for “the day of the Lord is in the valley of decision”, in other words God’s judgment and wrath are in the valley of decision.
If the Newtown murders, if the pending danger of Al Qaeda getting chemical weapons, if the pending danger of North Korea being able to launch nuclear weapons at the US, or any of man’s other crisis of the hour does not compel you to repent of your sin and our nation’s sins and serve God by honoring Him in ALL of our ways, well, then the judgment that will surely come can only be your own doing.
Now is not the time for politicking and using a crisis to take away freedoms, now is a time for repentance, now is the time to stop “halting between two opinions”- if God is God, serve Him, if all the Baals of our modern life are god, serve them. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
3 mentions: Juanita Berguson Bill Collier Disciple Report Community

America must decide whether our state and our society derive their authority and sovereign existence from God or from man. If God is God, the prophet would warn, then follow Him. But if ideology is God, follow it. Staying too long in the valley of decision is a dangerous thing, for “the day of the Lord is in the valley of decision”, in other words God’s judgment and wrath are in the valley of decision.

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Newtown’s Call To Anguish

By Disciple Reporter On Dec 15, 2012 Current Events | Paul Gordon Collier | Serving the Natural

 

 
From Anguish, the Workers of Christ's Kingdom are born

From Anguish, the Workers of Christ’s Kingdom are born

Luke 10:2

He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord
of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.

 

Matthew 5:4

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

 

I have been challenged lately in my walk to extend myself beyond what I have felt comfortable doing, to connect more with people around me, to go out and work the fields as God showed me this past summer I must be doing, we all must be doing.

This past summer I had a painful night of visions where I could see the death all around me, death that was to come in like a flood and sweep millions away in a death that has no end, the eternal death of the lost.  In the past month, I have felt we had fully entered into the flood I saw coming in the summer.

The news of Connecticut was not a surprise to me.  I expected it, or events like it, and I expect many more events like Connecticut to descend on this land.  They are already descended.  My challenge back in the summer was to go out and bring in the harvest that was to come, that wherever we, the sons and daughters of Christ, did not go out and do God’s work, of collecting the harvest, millions would enter into the death that has no end.

As I grew in my commitment to following Christ out into the fields, I reached a point where the challenge was becoming too much for me, where I was going too far beyond my own comfort.  I was willing to walk in discomfort, but not too far into discomfort.  My unwillingness to walk further was leading to a conflict with God.

What was it in the summer that spurred me, that convicted me to go out into the fields, that was missing in the winter, which was allowing me to resist God’s challenging call on my life?  Newtown brought home the message for me, of what was missing and, unexpectedly, of what I was really trying to avoid.

As we walk closer in God (and where we commit to serve Him daily through our love of him we are drawn closer to him), He shows us, mercifully only in a very small measure, how He sees the world around us.  Everything seems to become visible when you walk close with God.  You see around you the hope, the joy, and the grace of His presence in the lives of the people around you.  You see also the pain, the suffering, the darkness, the evil in the lives of the people around you.

God gave me a small tincture of His anguish in the summer, and that anguish was my guide, my engine that pushed me to go beyond my comfort.  This anguish was becoming too real for me.  Wherever I stepped out to serve, the darkness was made visible.  To be sure, just since this summer, I have witnessed much of the joy, mercy, and grace that has also been made visible through serving Him faithfully.

As we grow in Christ, the things which were once acceptable in our lives that are not God’s become less appealing.  As we grow in Christ, the work we are ‘capable’ of doing (through the Holy Spirit) becomes increasingly more obvious to us, and we grow in our understanding that this work will expose us more and more to the reality of the anguish of God for a fallen world where His children are daily rejecting Him and overtly seeking to lead others away from Him.

This is what I have been avoiding, and Newtown has brought the very thing I was trying to avoid directly in my view, the awful anguish of the fallen world and the children who willingly enter into darkness, seeking to take as many with them into that Hell as they possibly can.

My family gathered together last night, myself, my 8 year old daughter, and my wife, to talk about the school shooting.  I struggled trying to communicate to an 8 year old the evil of what occurred in Newtown, but I wanted to make sure I talked to my daughter first about it before she heard godless versions from the people at her school, perhaps even her teachers.  I wanted to make sure she could see it, if in a small way, from God’s perspective.

I shared with her the facts, that someone went into a school and killed what I understood at that time to be 18 children.  I then talked to her, and my wife, about the darkness descending on this land, a darkness brought on by our rejection, as a nation, of His Sovereignty over all of us.

I then talked about the anguish of God looking down on Newtown and seeing His children murdered and another one of His children choosing eternal death.  We paused for a moment there and I had my family listen with me to a ‘mashup’ of one of David Wilkerson’s sermons, A Call to Anguish.

We talked about our family living out Christ, preparing our family to be God’s workers in the fields.  We talked about extending our family to those around us.  My wife opened up our family charter and we reviewed that, preparing ourselves with a renewed commitment to living out our call as a family to serve the one true King, Christ.

I asked my daughter a challenging question, one that I will ask of you, the reader.  Do you think God loves the person who killed 20 children?  My daughter looked at me and said, “No.”  I answered, “Yes, and He weeps for that man just as he weeps for the murder of His children.”

But unlike the murdered children, the man is lost forever to God.  He has entered into the eternal death that is Hell.  The children are sitting in God’s throne room, reveling in His glory.

My daughter then asked me another question, “Why did God let this happen?”

I talked to her about the Israelites.  Moses, through God, led the Israelites out of Egypt, performing miracle after miracle.  God delivered the Israelites from disaster after disaster.  He parted the Red Sea.  He vanquished their enemies.  He fed them and clothed them.  He gave them light, literally, in the night.  He was a visible guide present in their lives every minute of every hour of every day.  The Israelites were inundated with miracles and deliverance.

Yet despite that, the moment Moses goes way, up Mount Sinai to receive the commandments from God, the people IMMEDIATELY turn to golden idols, false gods.  They turn away from the one true God and worship gold.

This is how it is with us, I explained.  God knows our hearts and He knows where to intervene and where, like a parent that has to painfully watch their child grow on their own, He has to not intervene.  Everything that God does, or doesn’t do, is designed for one purpose, to enable us to make the free will choice to come to love and worship Him, because He knows only in worshipping, in loving Him, will we be freed from death.

No one in Newtown died that did not already have a boundary placed on their lives, since before they were born, and no one was taken from Him that wasn’t already His.  The children, and the adults who loved Him, are with Him now, and their boundaries of life were already defined for this day to mark the end of their time on earth.

The ones left behind, they are the ones first and foremost we should be praying for, that that may be given the gift of the Holy Spirit, that they might be filled with faith that their loved ones are in God’s glory.  The enemy, Satan, will whisper in their ears lies against God, using the deaths of children to try to drive the families and friends away from God and into his own valley of death.

This event, this type of event is happening every day, and will happen more and more as death rolls in to the land, as judgment descends on a land that has so singularly rejected God.  We need not fear physical death, for this type of death does not take us or our loved ones away from the eternal glory of God, though we will mourn our loved ones when we lose them because they are no longer with us on this earth.

What we should fear, for ourselves, if we are not already loving and worshipping God, and for those around us, is eternal death.  I do not know the hearts of the adults who were murdered by this man, so perhaps all of them are with Christ, but I do know that at least one person entered into the eternal death of damnation, Satan’s valley of death, Hell itself.

This should be a cause for anguish for us all, and for the people around us daily entering into eternal death because they do not know and love the King.  This is the anguish of God I was shown this past summer, that darkness would be allowed to flow into a land because that land has rejected God again and again and again, and that through that darkness, Satan would have free reign to barrage God’s children with lies and evil that will trigger them to reject God for the evil Satan himself has brought on.

It was not an angel that whispered into the ear of that 20 year old man the morning he murdered his mother, then went to assassinate our most precious treasures, our children, it was Satan.  And it will be Satan whispering into the ears of those directly affected, and even those who have only heard about this evil on the news, the lies that lead to death, that God let this happen so why believe in Him.

This is the anguish of God, and this is what should spur you, the reader, as it should spur me, to go out and work the fields, to be there to offer truth where lies have descended, to witness Christ where death has been made master.

The evil of Newtown Connecticut was not born from access to guns, but from rejection of God, and there is more evil to come, so prepare yourselves, brothers and sisters in Christ, to go out and be His hands and feet, His mouth, His eyes, and do His work of collecting a harvest before Satan collects his own.  Be born, through His anguish, the workers of God, the living stones of His Kingdom.

 

David Wilkerson’s “A Call to Anguish”

For the children, “I can only imagine”

For those left behind, “I will praise You in this storm”

Here is the full sermon by David Wilkerson-

1 mention: Juanita Berguson

Being called to work the fields through anguish

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What is Truth? Ask the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade

By paulgordoncollier On Nov 22, 2012 Culture

Macy’s Thanksgiving Identity- Paul Gordon Collier

Today, I spent my Thanksgiving morning watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade on NBC with my wife and my 8 year old daughter (and JUST 8- she turned 8 this past Monday).

I don’t expect to see much from the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade about a day of thanks to our Lord and Maker, our one true Sovereign, the God of Abraham and Isaac, the Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit, but what I did see spoke volumes about the true cultural identity being formed in America today.  This cultural identity is not only NOT based in Christ, it is outright anti-Christian.

It is an identity that seeks to co-opt, or, perhaps a better word might be, corrupt the message of Christ to gently transition the remnant who still have some tincture of a true Christ-centered identity to a godless identity where the new gods are the collective whole (more on this later).

Let me first stick to the anti-Christian identity- Every year my wife watches this parade.  It is a tradition that her Mother introduced her to and it is a strong bridge to her past (like the best traditions are).  It reminds her of the importance of family as these memories are all rooted in my wife sharing genuine moments of loving connection to her Mother growing up.

I have never watched this parade in full, and, save for my wife and her traditions, most likely never would have.  Over the years I have seen this parade for what it is today- a glorified infomercial to prepare the American people to go out and buy, buy, buy, especially at Macy’s (though the parade has become so much bigger than the original intention, to simply promote Macy’s for the holiday buying season).

I am ignorant of what happened before the last 8-10 years that I have taken part in this tradition with my wife, so perhaps the earlier parades at least gave some lip service to God.  After all, this is really a holiday born out of a spirit of giving thanks to God, the Father, The Son, The Holy Spirit (and not some gender neutral, religious neutral ‘Creator’).  But since I have been watching this parade, there have been no real attempts to tip a hat, take a moment to thank our God for the blessings He gives us.

But this year, there was something different about this parade that moved it past being merely absent of God to promoting ungodly values, reinforcing the shift from Godliness to Godlessness in America today.  Perhaps there were other moments in the last few years and I just missed them.  Perhaps I am simply more attuned to identity than I was in the past.

As many of you know, the parade highlights current musicals that are running in Broadway.  This year, there is a musical called “Bring It On”, based on a movie of the same name.  The movie and the musical matter little.  What does matter are two moments during this performance that both highlight and encourage the shift from Godliness to Godlessness, from God as our Master to Man as our Master.

The first moment came as one of the dancers came forward, a ‘girl’ cheerleader who, it was clear, was really a guy.  This was not your typical man-in-drag comedy moment, but rather, this person was being presented as a ‘real live girl’ (to borrow a phrase from Pinocchio).  My 8 year old daughter looked a little confused at this person, who was clearly a man.  I had to explain to her it was a man dressed as a woman.

Should I have gone into more detail?  I don’t know.  I didn’t.  The moment was left to hang and, in a sense, is still hanging, yet to be resolved in my daughter’s mind.

Now I am not in any way suggesting government censorship here.  If a culture deems it appropriate to have a transsexual dancing in a Thanksgiving Day Parade and does not take free market action (boycotts, complaints to NBC, etc), then that culture should be given the freedom to choose a path that leads away from God and towards death.

I also do not want to heap on that transsexual dancer any hate or ill will.  He is free to believe as he believes and to live his life as he sees fit.  And sin is sin.  The transsexual is no more in sin than the unrepentant porn addict or the self-justifying adulterer (or even the chronic liar or the one who refuses to forgive someone else and justifies it).

The fact that a transsexual was allowed to dance in this parade in the company of families with their children is an extension of the fundamental shift that has already occurred in what’s left of “American Culture”.  It is not a matter for our government to address, but one for we the American people to address.

Have we killed off completely what was left of our identity in Christ as a nation?  I would support that a moment such as I experienced today is a true sign of that fait accompli.  In addition to being an indicator of the true cultural identity of America, this moment does much, especially with our young, to reinforce a godless-centered identity over a Christ-centered identity.

It converts tolerance for different beliefs and lifestyles to ACCEPTANCE.  It makes the Word of God a potential anti-American belief system, one that might one day find you before the judge answering charges of hate speech for daring to call homosexuality a sin (see Canada’s passage of the Alberta Human Rights Act for a taste of what’s coming to America- http://godtweeters.com/2012/03/canada-to-silence-parents-teaching-godly-standards-on-sexuality-source-thenewamerican-com/).

For America, what Truth has become is this- Any belief that anyone holds, unless that belief denies the truth of other beliefs.  Tolerance of others is about surrendering your absolute truth and accepting all truth as relative to the beholder.  And eventually, if trends continue, stating anything to the contrary will be deemed to be a threat to the good of the collective whole, a criminal act.

Yet even while we have accepted this idea of relative truth, which brings with it a whole host of other beliefs (such as ‘we cannot judge one another’, ‘we cannot hold one another accountable’, ‘the good of the whole is the only ideal we should strive to perfect’), there are some absolute truths this new Godless American identity will ‘tolerate’.

If you are one of the few who disagrees with these absolute truths, this will also potentially put you in direct conflict with the overall good of the collective whole.

One of these absolute truths was highlighted in this “Bring It On” musical number in which one girl sings to another girl something to the effect of this- “I used to call you a spoiled white girl, now I just call you a white girl”.  We are told on one hand to be non-racial in how we view the world, but we are also told that thinking about white people as being oppressors, as being the face of persecution, genocide, discrimination, is perfectly acceptable.  After all, you can’t really be a racist for hating the race that is in the majority, especially one so evil as white people (never mind about white men, those guys are all little Hitlers).

This little racist banter was left to go through unchecked, and, from what I see in the blogosphere, didn’t even raise an eyebrow, not even from the so-called “Conservatives” or even the “Christian Conservatives”.

My daughter didn’t raise an eyebrow on this exchange and I said nothing to point it out to her.  I reinforce in her the teachings of Christ, that we are either part of the family of God, through the blood of Christ, or outside the family of God.  This is the only distinction that matters to me as far as recognizing the ‘races’ of humanity.  You are either of the Godly race or the Ungodly race, whether you be German or Chinese, Nigerian or Australian, El Salvadoran or Assyrian.

As if to reinforce my observations on this Macy’s Day Parade showcase, President Barack Obama’s Thanksgiving Declaration not only reinforced it, but further clarified to the American people the new American God, the collectivist whole, and he did this by corrupting the message of Christ, that we should love one another, that we should provide for one another’s needs.

One of my favorite sites today is one called theidentitybridge.com.  I won’t give it away and tell you the hook of this site, but it is worth a visit.  The mission of this site seems to be to make it clear to the remnant what’s at stake, and to make sure as representatives of Christ’s Kingdom we understand that our only true and eternal identity is in Christ, not this or any other earthly country.

Today, there was an article about the President’s declaration that flushes out just how President Obama is seeking to shift what’s left of our Christ identity to an identity in ‘community’, what is really the collective whole, the state:

From theidentitybridge.com – http://www.theidentitybridge.com/thanksgiving-and-obamas-deepest-strength/

So what does that have to do with Obama’s Thanksgiving Proclamation? Well, look at the following two paragraphs from the proclamation. Notice how it begins with the theme of community and then reaches its climax in the last sentence:

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Many Thanksgivings have offered opportunities to celebrate community during times of hardship. When the Pilgrims at Plymouth Colony gave thanks for a bountiful harvest nearly four centuries ago, they enjoyed the fruits of their labor with the Wampanoag tribe — a people who had shared vital knowledge of the land in the difficult months before. When President George Washington marked our democracy’s first Thanksgiving, he prayed to our Creator for peace, union, and plenty through the trials that would surely come. And when our Nation was torn by bitterness and civil war, President Abraham Lincoln reminded us that we were, at heart, one Nation, sharing a bond as Americans that could bend but would not break. Those expressions of unity still echo today, whether in the contributions that generations of Native Americans have made to our country, the Union our forebears fought so hard to preserve, or the providence that draws our families together this season.

As we reflect on our proud heritage, let us also give thanks to those who honor it by giving back. This Thanksgiving, thousands of our men and women in uniform will sit down for a meal far from their loved ones and the comforts of home. We honor their service and sacrifice. We also show our appreciation to Americans who are serving in their communities, ensuring their neighbors have a hot meal and a place to stay. Their actions reflect our age-old belief that we are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers, and they affirm once more that we are a people who draw our deepest strength not from might or wealth, but from our bonds to each other.

Presidential Proclamation — Thanksgiving Day, 2012

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Notice what he is proclaiming:

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“we are a people who draw our deepest strength not from might or wealth, but from our bonds to each other.”

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While that’s a pretty good jab at his recently defeated foe, notice what Obama leaves out. He doesn’t say anything about drawing “our deepest strength” from God. So although God is mentioned in the proclamation, when it comes to “our deepest strength”, Obama finds that in his fellow human beings, not God. As we’ll show you in future memos, this is classic Obama! Despite his claims to be a “deep faith” Christian, there is a distinct detachment from God when it comes to relying on him and trusting in him.

Read more on theidentitybridge.com – click here- http://www.theidentitybridge.com/thanksgiving-and-obamas-deepest-strength/

I would add that President Obama is also incorporating our faith to justify shifting our trust and submission to God to our trust and submission in the collectivist whole, the ‘community’ (of which the perfect expression of that ‘community’ is the state, through which we as a people can love one another and be our brother’s keeper).  Never mind that the pilgrims didn’t gather to celebrate ‘community’, they gathered to celebrate the miracle God gave them.

In a nation in which Christ was our true central identity as a people, the declaration that President Obama gave today would have been met with outrage.  How could we have a President so obviously steeped in a godless ideology that echoes the Soviet and not the Constitution?  How could we have a President who reduces the efforts of the pilgrims to live God in totality to some sort of Soviet celebration of the collectivist whole?

This is not the fault of our President, but of us, the body, the ones who have ceased to be the salt and light, the ones who have left our children be educated by godless ideologues, the ones who have sent our kids to Sunday School every week and not sat down with them Monday through Saturday to grow in the Word together as a family.

My Thanksgiving is still all about the awesome blessings that God has given us all, the awesome opportunity He has given us through the tribulations ahead of us to witness the power of our faith in the face of persecution and hate from our neighbors and even our own government.  But for too many in America, Thanksgiving was about godlessness and collectivist idol worship.  Thanksgiving was about acceptable hate and unacceptable ‘truth’ (God’s Word).

So what is truth then, according to Macy’s?  The ‘truth’ of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade reflected this godless ideology, not in any remote way the truth of Christ, and this on a Christian holiday.  But that ‘truth’ itself was a reflection of the ‘truth’ Americans live out day today.  It only reinforced that truth and helped pass it on to the next generation.

I pray for our President that he might be led by God to repent of his sins of leading this nation further and further into godless, collectivist idol-worshiping death, and I pray for those hearing and accepting this message of death that God might have mercy on them and lead them out of the Kingdom of Darkness and into the Kingdom of Light, and I dedicate my life to go out into those harvest fields, collecting the work God has done on the hearts of the lost.

Amen

Paul Gordon Collier

So what is truth then, according to Macy’s? The ‘truth’ of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade reflected this godless ideology, not in any remote way the truth of Christ, and this on a Christian holiday. But that ‘truth’ itself was a reflection of the ‘truth’ Americans live out day today. It only reinforced that truth and helped pass it on to the next generation.

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Obama, don’t be Like David to Absalom and Amnon- The Gaza Conflict

By paulgordoncollier On Nov 20, 2012 Uncategorized | World News
World News- Paul Collier
An AP Reporter, Matthew Lee had a testy exchange with State Department Spokesperson Victoria Nuland that focused on the State Depatment’s (and, by extension, the Obama Adminsitration) refusal to denounce Turkish President Abdullah Gül’s recent comments accusing Israel of being a Terrorist State.
The State Deparment is claiming that it does not want to engage in a ‘public spitting match’ with one of their allies, Turkey.  Such actions, the State Department argues, would not help the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
While President Obama should be commended for his stance in supporting Israel’s right to self-defense, in putting the onus on Hamas to stop its rocket assault on Israel’s civilian population, the Administration is failing to take a decisive lead in a conflict that begs American leadersship.
What does it do for Hamas to hear a nation like Turkey so openly standing up for its cause, a cause that is, at present, represented by a rocket assault targeting Israel’s civilian population?  What does it do for Israel’s enemies to hear the Turkish President denounce Israel as a ‘terrorist state’, while acts of terror are being perpetrated on it by Hamas, the darling of the radical Middle East?
We can learn a little about leaders refusing to confront their ‘allies’  and how that silence emboldens them to even greater sins from David and two of his ‘allies’ Amnon and Absalom.  When Amnon raped his own sister, Tamar, David, the leader, the Father, was silent on the matter.  He did not condone the actions, but neither did he condemn the action.  He did not engage in a ‘spitting match’ with his ally.
In this case, the sin of Amnon led to an even greater sin, this by Absalom, who took matters into his own hands and murdered his own brother.  Once again, the leader, the Father, David, was silent, taking no decisive move.  He did not engage in a ‘spitting match’ with Absalom.  He neither condemnded nor condoned the action.  His half measures did not resolve the matter, but rather led to emoldening Absalom to act more directly and increasingly overtly against the leader, his own Father, David.
The refusal of David to engage in a ‘spitting match’ with his allies, his sons Amnon, eventually led to the death of Amnon, the death of Absalom, and the deaths of tens of thousands of Israelis as the result of a bloody civil war.  The refusal of the Obama Administration to engage in a ‘spitting match’ could lead to the deaths of tens of thousands of Israelis, Palestinians, Egyptians, Syrians, and who knows who else as the enemies of Israel are emboldened by the silence of the leader in this region, the United States, and, by extension, President Obama.
Pray that the President is led by God to see the position God has put him to be a leader who will stand up for Israel, who will boldly confront wrongs and send a message, a clear message to the region that America will not allow Israel’s enemies to attack her, to embolden acts of terror against her.
And take a little lesson from this world event to consider this- Is there someone in your life who has wronged you or someone else in your life?  Have you refused to confront that person in truth and love for the sake of avoiding a conflict, for the sake of avoiding a ‘spitting contest’?  If you have such a person in your life, consider David and his sons, consider Obama and the Turkish President.  Will your silence really keep the peace or simply embolden more actions, either from the offender or the offended, that will lead to greater conflict than the one you hope to avoid?
How is that boldness amplified by the silence of the Obama Adminsitration in its efforts to refuse to engage in a ‘spitting match”?
The Video and the Transcript are below:
MATTHEW LEE, AP REPORTER: You say that it would not be helpful for you to discuss any of your conversations that quiet diplomacy is the way to de-escalate that. Well, you have been doing your “quiet diplomacy” for almost a week. How’s it going so far?
VICTORIA NULAND, STATE DEPARTMENT: We are working hard with the parties that are working hard with…
LEE: Has it occurred to anybody that maybe being less quiet might get more results? Hrm? The squeaky wheel gets grease, that kind of thing?
NULAND: I’ll let the…
LEE: You’re being silent while people are dying left and right.
NULAND: Matt, we are being far from silent. The President has…
LEE: You’re not telling us anything about… when the Turks come out, when the leaders of Turkey come out and say that Israel is engaged in acts of terrorism and you refuse to say that you don’t agree with that or maybe you do agree with that, that’s being silent.
NULAND: Matt, we have made a decision that we need to engage in our diplomatic work diplomatically; we have been very clear on where we stand on this. Which is that we don’t practice diplomacy from the podium.
We have been very clear that Israel has the right of self-defense. Very clear that rockets continue to be fired and land on Israel. We’ve been very clear that we are working to get this conflict de-escalated. We have been very clear about our concern for the civilians and innocents on both sides who are getting caught in this.
LEE: And yet you won’t stick up for your ally Israel when the Turks, another one of your allies, say that they are engaged in terrorism in Gaza.
NULAND: We have been extremely clear about our concern for Israel security and the fact that Israel has the right to self-defense but I am not going to go further than that.
LEE: Why can’t you say that you don’t agree with the Turks?
NULAND: Because I am not going to get into a public spitting match with allies on either side. We’re just not going to do that, okay?
LEE: But you think that’s worse, a public spitting match between one of your allies is worse than hundreds of people dying every day.
NULAND: I don’t understand the question here. There is not a question here, you’re just looking for a fight, let’s go, say it, say it.
LEE: No no no, the fight is already, whats going on over there. And you guys by refusing saying anything about what you’re going trying to do by refusing to say whether you agree or disagree with comments that are being made by your allies or others, that makes things worse, not better.
NULAND: We of course agree that rhetorical attacks against Israel are not helpful at this moment. Is that what you are looking for Matt?

state department israel exchange with ap reporter

The refusal of David to engage in a ‘spitting match’ with his allies, his sons Amnon, eventually led to the death of Amnon, the death of Absalom, and the deaths of tens of thousands of Israelis as the result of a bloody civil war.

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The Party of Division and Hate versus the Party of Corruption?

By williamraymondcollier On Nov 20, 2012 Politics

Bill Collier

History, if it is written objectively, will judge modern Democrats as the party that bore the guilt of destroying America’s national consensus, and undermining the very fabric of political unity.

If America ever breaks apart into warring factions it will be the words and actions of people like Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Debrah Wasserman-Shultz, President Obama, Eric Holder, and the fawning progressive propagandists like Bill Maher and Chris Matthews are painting half of America with everyday blood libels while promsing the other half the spoils taken from everybody else.

The reason why they will continue to get away with this is that their opponents are weak and morally corrupt themselves. Some disavow the most important moral and ethical issues and cultural decency not realizing that those who embrace cultural corruption and moral depravity are hardly equipped, spiritually or mentally, to resist the siren calls of the progressive utopian promises of gain without pain, of indulgence without cost or the burden of responsibility.

Others focus on politics, heedless of the power of the progressive propaganda media, and they lean on the GOP, a broken reed incapable of supporting anything more than the parochial interests of its “leaders”. We have many of us leaned on that reed only to have it peirce our hand even as the propaganda media churcn out electoral victory after electoral victory for the progressive freedom-takers. Our days are numbered as a nation, and this is the judgment of God and of history.

The only question for the individual is whether their life and their community will follow America’s chosen path to dissolution, led by the divisive and spiteful rhetoric of the Democrats, or whether they will look to see what God’s says is right and possible for a just civic governance that reflects His promises and His truth rather than man’s.

Others focus on politics, heedless of the power of the progressive propaganda media, and they lean on the GOP, a broken reed incapable of supporting anything more than the parochial interests of its “leaders”. We have many of us leaned on that reed only to have it peirce our hand even as the propaganda media churcn out electoral victory after electoral victory for the progressive freedom-takers. Our days are numbered as a nation, and this is the judgment of God and of history.

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Leading With Christ in the Public Square

By paulgordoncollier On Nov 13, 2012 Paul Gordon Collier | Serving the Natural

Paul Gordon Collier

There are some in the “Conservative Coalition” who are calling on Christians to put aside their God, and even to put aside ‘social issues’ so we as a ‘Conservative Coalition’ can focus on the real issues, which, of course, are the economy and smaller government.  For those of you who are making this call, perhaps you should take the time to understand what it means for Christians to live a total Christ-centered life.  I am one of those Christians, so I understand a little what it means to live a total Christ-centered life (albeit imperfectly, as we humans remain until we are with the Father in Heaven).

Let me show you with Scripture, our first and foremost guide in everything we do,  the way that Christians, the ones who seek to live Christ and reflect Christ in all they do, interact with the ‘natural’ world, or, as you call it, the secular world:

God is real and is the orchestrator of all nations, and He expects something very real from them:  God judges nations- in the Old AND the New Testament- When God is real to you, these are not rhetorical figures of speech, these are very real-

Acts 17:26-27  He made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the surface of the earth, having determined appointed seasons, and the boundaries of their dwellings, that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.

Note that it is God who sets the boundaries of nations ‘that they should seek the Lord’.  My Faith tells me to obey the full council of the Word, so I take it very seriously that God will judge nations that do not seek Him (though He might take a year or a thousand years- we don’t know how long God will choose to have grace).

God judges nations- Old Testament- Amos- speaking of God’s coming judgment against Israel-

Amos 5:14-16  Seek good, and not evil, That you may live; And so Yahweh, the God of Armies, will be with you, As you say.  Hate evil, love good, And establish justice in the courts. It may be that Yahweh, the God of Armies, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.”  Therefore thus says Yahweh, the God of Armies, the Lord: “Wailing will be in all the broad ways; And they will say in all the streets, ‘Alas! Alas!’ And they will call the farmer to mourning, And those who are skillful in lamentation to wailing.

Now, we Christians (that is, the type I outline above) have only one purpose on this earth, to Worship the Lord in all we do.  Worship is love, adoration, and submission to our only one, true King.  Everything we do is for Christ, no one, nothing else

Matthew 6:24-

“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

Our life on earth is death.  Only our willingness to die in the earth gives us life in the King

Luke 17:33  Whoever seeks to save his life loses it, but whoever loses his life preserves it.

If we deny Christ, we are denied by Him

Matthew 10:32  Everyone therefore who confesses me before men, him I will also confess before my Father who is in heaven.

33  But whoever denies me before men, him I will also deny before my Father who is in heaven.

 

What is alarming about this call to set aside God, to set aside social issues is that some of the people calling on Christians to do this are professed Christians.  To that I would say, Christians who would go against us because we invoked the name of God to justify, for instance, our position on the issue of murdering the unborn are not, in point of fact, Christians.

Matthew 12:30

“He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.

It is this type of thinking from certain parts of the “Conservative Coalition” that threatens the coalition.  Members of this coalition want to remove God from the dialogue and make it all about ‘secularusism’, which is simply godlessness, as in, without God.

This is not to say that Christians should only serve beside Christians in the political world, or that we are called to form Christian governments that will force people to worship our God as we do.  These ‘standards’ are as godless as the standards some seem to want to call us to follow, to deny the force behind our political decisions, that our nation reflects Christ’s values where Christ calls nations to reflect His values.

Just how Christ calls us to exhort our nations to reflect His values leave some room for interpretation, and, it is not a theological discourse Christians seriously think about often enough.  I see a lot of Christians overstepping the boundaries God assigns us.  We are called (we Christians) first and foremost to live a nation that is nothing like the natural nation, and we are called specifically not to force non-believers to worship God, but we are called to exhort our nations, wherever we are citizens, to reflect God’s values specifically as they relate to man connecting to man (as opposed to man connecting to God).

I am trying to understand the specific conditions where I need to be a loyal citizen in the Kingdom of God and exhort my nation in His name to reflect God’s law in their laws and where I am called to not invoke the name of God to exhort my nation to reflect a law or value that expresses the diverse range of governance God gives us to choose from.

An issue such as abortion, for instance, is not a grey area, and my motivation for calling my nation to abandon the murder of the unborn is twofold, both of which are rooted completely in my worship of God:

From loving God, we love one another.  We love our neighbors as ourselves.  We love our enemies.  We love one another as Christ loves us.  Through this love, I lobby my government to stop murdering children that God loves, that I love, through God’s love.

The second reason I seek to lobby my government to stop murdering the unborn is that I know God will judge a nation that allows the murder of the unborn.  This is an obvious violation of man connecting to man in a Godly way, murdering His precious children before they even exit the womb (in some cases, such as partial birth abortion, even AFTER they exit the womb).

I will not, I cannot accept a standard that calls me to deny Christ as this call to set aside God in my political positioning unwittingly does.  And if significant portions of this ‘coalition’ echo this sentiment and stand by it, they will lose Christians.  They may have reason to fear Obama, fear man, but I don’t.  I fear my God far more than Obama or any lost vote.

I do not see this coalition staying together based on what I have seen.  I do not believe there is common ground between all the members of this ‘coalition’, but I do believe there is common ground between plenty of the so-called secular conservatives and ‘Christian’ conservatives.

I see a nation fracturing, already without any real common shared understanding of the core values that should form their rule of law, their governance.  My hope lays in living Christ, in my living room, with my neighbors, one street by one street.

As a citizen of the Kingdom of God I am called to be a good citizen in this natural kingdom, America.  So I will do my part to seek to walk with people who do not think Christ should be denied in my public service, even if they don’t share my belief in Christ, to compromise where God’s Word is not in play, and to vote for candidates, lobby my government, that stand for freedom, liberty, justice and do not represent a denial of some critical command by God in our relation between man and man.

I seek to stand openly and boldy in the name of Christ where God calls me clearly to do so.  I seek to self-apply boundaries on myself is I relate to the natural kingdom in the ways God calls me to limit my efforts to exhort my natural nation to reflect Godliness in their governance over the believers and non-believers alike.

I will walk in the political arena with whoever will walk with me in exhorting my government to reflect governance that does not violate the clear Godly standards of man relating to man, for whatever reason they might have.  I cannot walk with those who would lobby my government to reflect standards of governance that clearly violate Godly standards of man relating to man.

As Martin Luther said before the Catholic Inquisitors who were challenging his notion that all authority begins and ends in the Word, Here I stand, I can do no other.

Paul Gordon Collier

Let me show you with Scripture, our first and foremost guide in everything we do, the way that Christians, the ones who seek to live Christ and reflect Christ in all they do, interact with the ‘natural’ world, or, as you call it, the secular world:

God is real and is the orchestrator of all nations, and He expects something very real from them: God judges nations- in the Old AND the New Testament- When God is real to you, these are not rhetorical figures of speech, these are very real

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Making Disciples of Nations

By Disciple Reporter On Nov 8, 2012 Discipleship | Juanita Berguson
Juanita Berguson
To make disciples of all Nations, starting at home!
We should be bringing people into the Kingdom of God through helping them find faith in Christ’s sacrifice resulting in salvation through grace. PLUS, we should be loving our neighbor as ourselves. Loving our neigbor means that as salt, the influence of God should permeate all dimensions of society: Education – that truth and knowledge are passed on.. Civic – that laws supporting good and right behavior are passed and upheld Entertainment – that wholesome, family supporting programming is available Etc.
The outcome of salt moving through the various areas of culture in our communities and nation is a Healthy Society for ourselves, our familes and others. Contributing to healthy socities in one act of making disciples of all Nations, starting at home!
We live under democracy. As democratic citizens, we have many opportunities to fulfil our obligation to love to our neigbor and to work for their well-being: Praise to God, we can have an impact on our neighbor, the community and the country! To this end, we often join with others so that we be more effective.
The diagram below shows how we, as Americans believers in God, can unite to build a strong nation. We need to resist the temption to inward focus and unbalanced living. We will balance the Great Commission and the Great Commmantment, being salt and light to a dying world. Influencing all around us for righteousness is a priviledge and a calling, resulting in benefitting others -this is tangible love! By loving others, even those without Christ, we bring glory to God! Amen!
We have the opportunity to uniteto impact Society. Here is the technical basis for this:

 

The diagram below shows how we, as Americans believers in God, can unite to build a strong nation. We need to resist the temption to inward focus and unbalanced living. We will balance the Great Commission and the Great Commmantment, being salt and light to a dying world. Influencing all around us for righteousness is a priviledge and a calling, resulting in benefitting others -this is tangible love! By loving others, even those without Christ, we bring glory to God! Amen!
We have the opportunity to uniteto impact Society. Here is the technical basis for this:

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Did Obama’s Win Herald a Blessing from God?

By paulgordoncollier On Nov 7, 2012 Paul Gordon Collier | Politics

Paul Gordon Collier

What if I were to tell you that Barack Obama’s re-election was a blessing from God?  What if I were to tell you that God is showing us that He still loves us, He still desires for us to turn back to Him and receive His blessings, and that the re-election of Barack Obama was that proof?

What if I were to tell you that, through Christ, Barack Obama might be the greatest hope this land has to repent and turn back to the one true King?  Would you continue reading or would you turn back to the fear, the hate, the anger you might be feeling today?

Well, let me say plainly, Barack Obama is a blessing from God.  His Presidency may heal this nation.  It will prepare the way for the people of God to live apart from this land, as a city on top of a hill for the lost of this land to see.

I see it already happening, as God is preparing a great harvest for His workers to gather in.  This harvest will come from those who don’t know Christ and now see that the only hope for security is from the King of Kings and not an earthly king.  This harvest will come from those who know Christ but haven’t been resting their hope in him.  They will now see clearly no election, no politician can save them, protect them, clothe them, comfort them like the one true King, Christ can.

This harvest will come from those who have been seeking Christ but not seeking Him together with the people directly in front of them, the believers around them, and not just the believers that go to their church.   They will be drawn to one another in the same way that people are drawn close to one another for protection and warmth during great storms.  They will seek Christ in their living rooms, with their families.  They will seek Christ in their cubicles at work, with co-workers who also walk in Christ.

The body of Christ in Acts was found to be without lack.  They did this in an empire under Emperors far more oppressive and hateful to Christians than Barack Obama ever was or ever will be.  They did this in an empire where they had NO HOPE of an election in two years ‘saving them’ from oppression and state-enforced godlessness.  They did this while they paid their taxes and honored the Emperor and the laws of the land where that did not conflict with the Laws of God.

They cheerfully died as martyrs in this godless Empire, and Christ and His way flourished simply because the body of Christ loved and worshipped God together in everything they did.

Be cheerful, brothers and sisters.  Embrace the trials, the hardships, for they will be sowing seeds of harvest for us workers to cultivate and gather.  Thousands, millions will come to the saving grace of the King, will walk out of the kingdom of darkness and into the Kingdom of Light.  Thousands, millions will die to themselves and live in Christ, with others, becoming families in Christ, orphans no more, even while the land around them plunges into death and darkness.

Thousands, millions, will become Citizens in Christ’s Kingdom, where the provinces of this Spiritual land lay in the hearts of the people who submit, in fear and love, to their divinely appointed King, Christ himself, who is, was, and always will be, the great I am who asks of us only to give all to the all.

If Mitt Romney would have won, there would be a complacency about the land, even amongst Christians, who, at the end, seemed satisfied, largely, with a Mormon representing their hope for freedom, representing their protector from the darkness of this world.

I struggle to understand this election in the human sense.  I struggle to resist the anger, the fear, the grief I feel over this election.  But in my heart that belongs to Christ I experience radically different emotions- joy, praise, worship, gratitude.  Christ has had mercy on us and allowed Obama to be our earthly King.  Like the Pharaoh who defied the people of Israel and Moses, God will use Obama to demonstrate to His people, the provinces of Christ’s Kingdom, the living stones of His temple, the citizens of the Kingdom of God, His greatness and power and mercy.

All praise to God for giving us a chance to turn to Him, for making our choices clear and not allowing a victory that might lead to a death far worse than physical death, the death of the spirit.

So, as you hopefully can see, Barack Obama is a blessing from God.  His second term will draw the body together and deliver the lost from the darkness and into the light.  I do not know if this nation will ultimately turn back to God and repent for their ungodly ways and rejection of His Son, the King of Kings, but I do know, through the Holy Spirit, that He is preparing His people to be the city on top of a hill, through which, either this nation, or the nations to come, will see His power, His glory, and His grace, and they will be amazed and not help but hunger after righteousness, worshipping the Father who is in heaven.

What if I were to tell you that Barack Obama’s re-election was a blessing from God? What if I were to tell you that God is showing us that He still loves us, He still desires for us to turn back to Him and receive His blessings, and that the re-election of Barack Obama was that proof?

What if I were to tell you that, through Christ, Barack Obama might be the greatest hope this land has to repent and turn back to the one true King? Would you continue reading or would you turn back to the fear, the hate, the anger you might be feeling today?

Well, let me say plainly, Barack Obama is a blessing from God. His Presidency may heal this nation. It will prepare the way for the people of God to live apart from this land, as a city on top of a hill for the lost of this land to see.

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