GOVERNMENT V

The Final Word:

"Blesssed is the nation whose God is the Lord...
From heaven the Lord looks down and sees all mankind...
...the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love." Psalm 33: 12,13,18.

"...acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men." Daniel 4:25

"Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain?

The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One.

The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them.

Therefore, you kings, be wise;
be warned you rulers of the earth,
Serve the Lord with fear
and rejoice with trembling." Psalm 2:1,2,4,10

GOD AND GOVERNMENT IV

Carved in stone:

In no other place in the United States are there so many, and such varied official evidences of deep and abiding faith in God on the part of Governments as there are in Washington.

In a small room in the Capitol, set aside by the 83rd Congress, the focal point is a stained glass window showing George Washington kneeling in prayer.

Above are the words, "This Nation Under God"
Behind him is etched these words from Psalm 16:1: "Preserve me, O God, for in Thee do I put my trust."

The phrase, "In God We Trust" appears opposite the President of the Senate.
The same phrase, in large words inscribed in the marble; backdrops the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Above the head of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court are the Ten Commandments, and included among the great lawgivers sculped in marble on the east front is Moses.

Engraved on the metal cap atop the Washington Monument are the words: "Praise be to God", and lining the walls of the stairwell are such biblical phrases as "Search the Scriptures", "Holiness to the Lord", and "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it".

Numerous quotations from Scripture can be found within the walls of the Library of Congress. Among them: "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork" Psalm 19:1

As one gazes up at the statue of Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial, it seems as though the sculptor who chiseled the features of this great man all but seems to make Lincoln speak his own words which are inscribed into the wall around him. "...that this nation. under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

In another place on the north wall, his Second Inaugural Address alludes to "God", the "Bible", "providence", "the Almighty," and "divine attributes."

It then continues: "As was said 3000 years ago, so it still must be said. 'The judgements of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.' "

And on the south banks of Washington's Tidal Basin, Thomas Jefferson still speaks: "God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we remove a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?"

It has been said that these words of Jefferson should be seen as a forceful and explicit warning that to remove God from this country will destroy it

What say you?

GOD AND GOVERNMENT III

In 1892, the United States Supreme Court made an exhaustive study of the supposed connection between Christianity and the government of the United States.

After receiving hundreds of volumes of historical documents, the Court asserted, "These references...add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a religious people..a Christian nation."

Likewise, in 1931 Supreme Court Justice George Sutherland reviewed the l892 decision in reference
to another case and reiterated that Americans are a 'Christian people.'

And in 1952 Justice William O. Douglas affirmed that'we are a religious people and our institutions presuppose a Supreme Being'.

GOD AND GOVERNMENT II

The year was 1863, The United States of America was in crisis....

The Senate called upon President Lincoln to set aside a national day of "fasting, humiliation and prayer".
The President concurred and so designated April 30 as such, issuing the following proclamation:

"It is the duty of nations as well as of men," he said, " to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentence will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.

We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. We have been preserved, the many years, in peace and prosperity.
We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown.
But we have forgotten God.
We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.
Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!
It behooves us, then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness."

April 30, 1863
President Abrham Lincoln

GOD AND GOVERNMENT

Inauguration Day:

"It would be peculiarly improper to omit, in this first official act," the new president says, "my fervent supplication to that Almighty Being, who rules over the universe, who presides in the council of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States...

No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency...

We ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained."

General George Washington
Taking the oath of office as the first President of the United States.
New York City, April 30, 1789

Eight years later, in his farewell address, in even stronger words, he warns:
"Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle."

http://www.vlib.us/amdocs/texts/01wash1.htm

FREE WILL IV

"Choose this day whom you will serve.... but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." Joshua
Joshua 24:15

FREE WILL III

"Why do we do what we do?
Why do we take that which is clearly black and white and paint it grey?
Why are priceless virtues trashed while senseless current standards obeyed?
What causes us to elevate the body and neglect the soul?
What causes us to pamper the skin while we pollute the heart?
Our values are messed up.
Free Will can be tricky. Max Lucado

"Buy the truth and do not sell it; get wisdom, discipline and understanding." Proverbs 23:23

FREE WILL II

"Hell was not prepared for people.
Hell was 'prepared for the devil and his angels'.(Matthew 24:51.
For a person to go to hell, then, is for a person to go against God's intended destiny...
Hell is man's choice, not God's choice." Max Lucado

"God did not appoint us to suffer wrath, but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Thessalonians 5:19

FREE WILL

"We are free either to love God or not.
He invites us to love Him.
He urges us to love Him.
He came that we might love Him.
But, in the end, the choice is yours and mine.
To take that choice from each of us, for Him to force us to love Him, would be less than love...In the end, He leaves the choice with us." Max Lucado

"On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, 'If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.' "
John 7:37

ON BEING HUMAN

"Those tiny drops of humanity. Those round, wet balls of fluid that tumble from our eyes, creep down our cheeks, and splash on the floor of our hearts...
They are miniature messengers, on call twenty-four hours a day to substitute for crippled words.
They drip, drop, and pour from the corner of our souls, carrying with them the deepest emotions we possess." Max Lucado

"Jesus wept." John 11:35

THE GREATEST LOVE

'You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.
Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.
But God demonstrates His Own Love for us in this: While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5: 6-8

What God did makes sense. It makes sense that Jesus would be the sacrifice.. (He is the only sufficient, acceptable one there could be.)

However, why God did it is absolutely absurd...
That type of love is not logical; it can't be neatly outlined in a sermon or explained in a term paper . Max Lucado

"Now these three things abide: faith, hope and love.
But the greatest of these is LOVE."

A PRAYER OF LOVE

This is my constant prayer
:http://www.hymnsite.com/lyrics/umh453.sht

I hope it will remain my "earnest plea" as long as I have breath.

LOVE CONQUERS TIME

Mother was often heard reciting this; especially at this time of the year.

"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with a passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints,-- I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! --and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

a note to lovers: As surely as day follows night and winter bursts into spring...if nurtured, love will grow.
Never settle for anything less than this.

TIME VS. LOVE

"Jacob served seven years for Rachal, but they seemed as only a few days to him because of his love for her." Genesis 29:20

ps: Actually he worked a total of fourteen years for her.
It's quite a love story and one worth reviewing. Genesis 29

THE SUBJECT IS LOVE

Wth Valentine's Day coming up this week, I will be posting some thoughts on love.
Anyone who wants to add anything, feel free.

"Love doesn't make the world go 'round.
But it surely makes the ride worthwhile." Carol Burnett

RIGHT CHOICES

"What we call the secret of happiness is no more a secret than our willingness to choose life." Leo Buscaglia

"This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to His voice and hold fast to Him." Moses Deuteronomy 30:19

SUFFICIENT UNTO THE DAY

"Worry can never diminish tomorrow of it's sorrow; it can only rob today of it's joy." A.J. Cronin

"No need to open your umbrella 'til it's raining." Alice Caldwell Rice

LIFE ABUNDANT: JOHN 10;10

"Our problem is not that we want too much, but rather that we settle for too little." C. S. Lewis

"I came so you can have real and eternal life, more and better life than you ever dreamed of." Jesus (The Message)

MORE FROM JOHN WESLEY

"Catch on fire with enthusiasm and people will come for miles to watch you burn." J.Wesley

An interesting thought. What do you make of it?

THE GOOD LIFE

"O Lord, help me to do all the good I can, by all the means I can, in all the ways I can, in all the places I can, in all the times I can, to all the people I can as long as ever I can." John Wesley

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