Post Tenebras Lux

How does one go about getting the attention of the average American on issues such as appear in this blog? Well, let's start to answer that by identifying those issues. On July the 4th, 1776 the Declaration of Independence was signed and so began the Great American Experiment. Two-hundred and thirty five years later a new declaration is being signed onto, one that voids the first. American military superiority has peaked as we are told that only small regional wars might lie ahead. Our American education system is no longer what it was and is too often merely a battleground for an ideological paradigm shift on the lower end and breeding grounds for the globalist and transnationalist on the higher end. The majority of the American church is inflicted with one of three illnesses: total liberal heresy in denial of the gospel, off on tangents and doctrinal fads that at the very least make the true proclamation of the gospel ineffective, or so watered-down in identity and doctrine as to make it a place where almost anyone in this nation can saunter in and have no objections, feel no guilt or have no compulsion to respond to anything coming out of the pulpit. Homosexuality directly challenges God on television, philosophy in film, and greed in business. Should a child survive the pre-born sacrifice of abortion, he or she must navigate a world increasingly at enmity with God. The coup de' gras of the socialist/Marxist/globalist assault on America has been in the concept of "law." That which has kept us from chaos is too often in the hands of those who do not revere it. The Robert Borks are being replaced by the Elena Kagans. These are some of the issues, now how does one go about getting people's attention? Well, there's good and bad news here. Let me start with the bad news; one cannot get their attention. In fairness to them, they would have to sneeze while changing radio stations, and sneeze just as the dial was positioned on talk radio, inadvertently giving them the opportunity to hear some morsel of legitimate news, information and warning; and even then, would they listen? The original condition of every man, women and child on this earth is that of autonomy and self-exaltation, and no one was once more cemented into it than I. The good news? Nations rise and nations fall according to God's will! We are in darkness today in the United States of America but surely the Reformation mottos of Post Tenebras Lux (after darkness, light) and Soli Deo Gloria (to God alone be glory) offer us hope in remembrance of those who have gone before us. If this blog informs anyone in a way which causes them to inquire into their fallen condition and then seek God's mercy it will be entirely His doing, according to His will and to His glory alone. If it wouldn't, then I consider it a hidden blessing not to have been taken seriously.

Over these past three years I have occasionally copied, word for word, prayers out of a book of Puritan prayers called Valley Of Vision which was edited by Arthur Bennett. It's been a blessing to the church especially considering its content, Puritan prayers, in this shallow age. Here is another offering from that book that I hope you will purchase for your own edification, for although it has daily humbled me it has also given me great hope in the One who first moved its authors:

Lord God Almighty,

I asked not to be enrolled amongst the earthly
great and rich,
but to be numbered with the spiritually blessed.
Make it my present, supreme, persevering concern
to obtain those blessings which are
spiritual in their nature,
eternal in their continuance,
satisfying in their possession.
Preserve me from a false estimate of the whole
or a part of my character;
May I pay regard to
my principles as well as my conduct,
my motives as well as my actions.
Help me
Never to mistake the excitement of my passions
for the renewing of the Holy Spirit,
never to judge my religion by occasional
impressions and impulses, but by my
constant and prevailing disposition.
May my heart be right with thee,
and my life as becometh the gospel.
May I maintain a supreme regard to another
and better world,
and feel and confess myself a stranger
and a pilgrim here.
Afford me all the direction, defense, support,
and consolation my journey hence requires,
and grant me a mind stayed upon thee.
Give me large abundance of the supply of
the Spirit of Jesus,
that I may be prepared for every duty,
love thee in all my mercies,
submit to thee in every trial,
trust thee when walking in darkness,
have peace in thee amidst life's changes.
Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief
and uncertainties.