Interceding
For The Soul of America
Part
Two
9/14/03
Let me ask you a question. Do you care about the spiritual well being of
your family? You absolutely should! Now add to that.
Think bigger!
Christianity is bigger than your own private world!
Two weeks ago I shared a message entitled “Interceding For The Soul of
America.” I can’t get away from it!
1 Chr. 12:22 Day after day men came to help David, until he had a great
army, like the army of God.
23 These are the numbers of the men armed for battle who came to
David at Hebron to turn Saul’s kingdom over to him, as the LORD had said:
24 men of Judah, carrying shield and spear—6,800 armed for
battle;
25 men of Simeon, warriors ready for battle—7,100;
26 men of Levi—4,600, 27 including Jehoiada, leader of the family
of Aaron, with 3,700 men, 28 and Zadok, a brave young warrior, with 22 officers
from his family;
29 men of Benjamin, Saul’s kinsmen—3,000, most of whom had
remained loyal to Saul’s house until then;
30 men of Ephraim, brave warriors, famous in their own
clans—20,800;
31 men of half the tribe of Manasseh, designated by name to come
and make David king—18,000;
32 men of Issachar, who understood the times and knew what
Israel should do—200 chiefs, with all their relatives under their
command;
It was the nation, God was doing something in the
nation!
I am so thankful that Christianity is a personal relationship, but so many
of us stop there! it’s bigger than just being personal! We have to get the
bigger picture!
Ps. 33:12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people he chose
for his inheritance.
How do you read that? Do you see this as only
being Israel? Israel rejected their Messiah! They crucified Him!
Rom. 2:28 A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is
circumcision merely outward and physical. 29 No, a man is a Jew if
he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the
Spirit, not by the written code.
Rom. 9:6 It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all who are
descended from Israel are Israel. 7 Nor because they are his
descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, “It is through
Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” 8 In other words, it is
not the natural children who are God’s children, but it is the children of the
promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring.
Evil triumphs when the righteous do nothing!
The Lord wants us to have a burden bigger than our own world!
Jer. 29:4 This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all
those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 “Build
houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6
Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your
daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase
in number there; do not decrease. 7 Also, seek the peace and
prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD
for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”
1 Tim. 2:1 I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers,
intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone — 2 for
kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet
lives in all godliness and holiness. 3 This is good, and pleases God
our Savior, 4 who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the
truth.
Is. 60:12 For the nation or kingdom that will not serve you will perish; it
will be utterly ruined.
Read 2 Chr. 24:1-25
The parallel is remarkable! When the priest
influenced the king the nation prospered. After the death of Jehoiada the king
was influenced by ungodly rulers and judgment came.
Satan is doing a tremendous job destroying
America from its soul!
Don Wildmon from the American Family Association wrote the following:
The issue isn’t a granite stone with the Ten Commandments inscribed on it.
Never has been. The issue is much more diverse and important than a piece of
stone.
The issue was best stated by none other than Federal Judge Myron Thompson,
who said that the display of the stone containing the Ten Commandments (which
also contains a host of other historical documents) is illegal. Thompson said
the central, most important issue was this: “Can the state acknowledge
God?”
After asking the question, he went on to answer it. “No.”
That is the issue. Lest we fail to understand what has occurred here, let me
explain. A single, lower-court federal judge has bluntly told every American
that America is now officially an atheist nation.
In one swift stroke of the pen, Judge Thompson tossed out over 225 years of
American history and law. In one swift stroke of the pen, he has instituted a
new form of law based on what he wants it to be. He wears a black robe and he
says he is the law.
Go back and read the First Amendment, the one Judge Thompson destroyed in
the name of preserving it. “Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion.” Congress has passed no law establishing religion.
But what Congress refused to do, Judge Thompson did. He instituted as the law
of the land the religion of atheism, which says there is no God.
This is precisely what one lower federal judge has done. He told Americans
who disagree with his official state religion of atheism that he can and will
prohibit the free exercise of their religion -- unless, of course, that
religion is atheism. He stripped both Congress and the people of their rights.
He set himself above the law because he considers himself to be the law.
From this day forward, our entire judicial system must be based on the
religion of atheism. Follow that to its logical conclusion. In the future there
will be no frame of reference from which to decide law. Law will become what
any person wearing a black robe and sitting in court desires it to be. The
First Amendment has been ripped apart in the name of upholding it. Orwell’s
1984 has arrived.
No, you will not notice any drastic changes immediately. There is still a
remnant left in the hearts and minds of the current population. But when that
remnant dies out, those who come after us will see a big difference.
The state will become intolerant of any religion other than atheism. That,
of course, will come into conflict with people of conscience whose religion
differs from that of the state. That is when the persecution, quite legal I
might add, will start. It was the atheist Santayana who said: “Those who cannot
remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, wrote:
“The Constitution is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary,
which they may twist and shape into any form they please.”
Indeed, Santayana and Jefferson were right.
Are you still crying out to the Lord for the
Supreme Court?
While I was praying this past week I was reminded of something....
Gen. 20:1 Now Abraham moved on from there into the
region of the Negev and lived between Kadesh and Shur. For a while he stayed in
Gerar, 2 and there Abraham said of his wife Sarah, “She is my
sister.” Then Abimelech king of Gerar sent for Sarah and took her.
3 But God came to Abimelech in a dream
one night and said to him, “You are as good as dead because of the woman you
have taken; she is a married woman.”
Dan. 2:1 In the second year of his reign,
Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; his mind was troubled and he could not sleep. 2
So the king summoned the magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers to
tell him what he had dreamed. When they came in and stood before the king, 3
he said to them, “I have had a dream that troubles me and I want to know what
it means.”
Ezra 1:1 In the first year of Cyrus king of
Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah, the LORD
moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his
realm and to put it in writing:
2 “This is what Cyrus king of Persia
says:
“‘The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all
the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at
Jerusalem in Judah. 3 Anyone of his people among you—may his God be with him,
and let him go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the LORD, the
God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem. 4 And the people of any place where
survivors may now be living are to provide him with silver and gold, with goods
and livestock, and with freewill offerings for the temple of God in Jerusalem.’”
God hears and answers prayer! Intercession is
not in vain!
Satan would want us to believe otherwise!
Eph. 2:1 As for you, you were dead in your
transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you
followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the
air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
2 Cor. 4:4 The god of this age has blinded the
minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the
glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
The media at large is controlled by the spirit of this age. The media wants
to undermine anything of moral value. The media favors the liberal, the
homosexual or anything else that has Christian values.
Anything going on in Iraq that is bad is magnified in order to make our
president to look bad.
The following was written by a Navy Senior
Chief in the Seabees.
I caught wind of and read the recent news articles being circulated back
there in the states. I figured I could clarify some things for you.
As usual the news media has blown some things way out of proportion. The
countryside is getting more safe by the day despite all the attacks you are
hearing about. Imagine every shooting incident or robbery committed in LA or
Portland being blown way out of proportion. This is a country where most of the
Saddam Hussein thugs are being chased around like scared rabbits by Coalition
forces. There were about a million soldiers in the Iraqi army at the beginning
of hostilities and most of them took off before we attacked. There are some
that were very loyal to Saddam that are trying to sneak around and take pot
shots at us. We are cleaning them up pretty fast.
There are also thugs from other countries running around, like Iran and
Syria. Well, the Iraqis hate these thugs as much as we do. So the Iraqi people
are hunting them down too! I can honestly say 98% of the population of Iraq
love us and they do not want us to leave...ever! They say as long as we are
here they feel safe.
What is going on with the countries infrastructure? Everything is going
well! The railroad is running again! The railroad has not run since 1991. In
the city of Hilllah, the power stays on 24 hours a day and it has more power
than prior to the war.
The markets are open. The Seabees have rebuilt all of the schools and put in
furniture and chalkboards. The kids used to sit on the floor! Now they have
nice desks to sit at. Commerce is running. New money is being printed. The
Iraqi Dinar (dee-nar) has stabilized and is now increasing in value. Most of
the Iraqi men want to buy Chevy pickups. They pretty much want any vehicle made
by General Motors. The highways and bridges are being repaired. In the
Universities, the girls have tossed their long black dresses with head and face
coverings and are now wearing western style clothes and even some are wearing
short sleeves. The favorite drink is Pepsi. They want us to bring them any and
everything American. Any item made in America or that is from America is worth
money over here.
The newspapers and television paint a picture of doom and gloom and that we
are having major problems over here. That is just not the case. The Iraqis have
a saying about the situation over here “Every day is better than the day before.
Life is flowing back in to this country. Some days watching the Iraqi people is
like watching the faces of little kids on Christmas Day! Many of them are
walking around in a daze wondering what to do with their freedom. They are
starting businesses everywhere. They want to build shopping malls and
factories, they want McDonalds and Jack in the Box and Pizza Hut. We give them
our old newspapers and magazines that you have been sending us and they are
absolutely flabbergasted when they read them! They want us to keep bringing
them. They read every single page even the advertisements over and over! This
would be a good time for media to get their magazines going over here because
the Iraqis just love them.
Senior Chief Art Messer
22 Naval Construction Regiment (Forward) Task Force Charlie
U. S. Navy Seabees
“With Compassion For Others, We Build, We Fight, For Peace With Freedom”
FOR GOD AND COUNTRY
Be part of an intercessory prayer team!