Electing Good Leaders Would Follow, Not Precede, National Repentence

     
       The real import in Ted Cruz's announcement today is not in what he could do if elected as our president. The real significance in his election as president would be that a change would have had to occur in the American people, for if America were to elect someone with such an overtly Christian message as Ted Cruz gave today it would signal that we were breaking the bondage of special interests groups and that greed no longer dictated our vote. To elect Ted Cruz would mean that maybe we were beginning to humble ourselves before our Creator.
        Almost from day one in these posts I've given my opinion that neither politics, nor governments, nor armies can stop or even postpone God's judgement upon our nation unless we first do exactly what Israel had done from time to time, that being repenting and returning to Him. Ted Cruz... Jim DeMint... no one, not even our best, can rule or legislate away God's judgement. The electing of a strong and wise president would not come first but rather first would come the repentance which would pave the way for choosing good leaders.      

        The following are five vignettes from a book, the title and author of which are listed at the end of this post. If you have followed my blog for any amount of time you may be tired of this anecdote; Martin Luther was asked what he would do if he knew for certain that the Lord Jesus was to return the very next day. Luther's answer was "I'd plant a tree."  It would be irresponsible to our families not to plan for the future and it would be irresponsible as citizens not to pray for wisdom and discernment...and strength....in at least attempting to elect wise and honorable leaders but there is also reality to face.
         Our nation is collapsing from within. Every pillar is under attack. Please pay particular attention to Hugh Latimer's comment in the following post on what England's "well-being" depended, that is if you read that far. It is the height of absurdity for us look to elections as if they hold the key to our survival. It's beyond presumption to think that we can stop our fall or even defend ourselves against our enemies without national repentance and God's mercy upon us. But we, as a general consensus anyway, no longer attribute our existence to Him. Difficult days are ahead and that is even with God's mercy. Yes, plant that tree...make those plans.... always adding "should the Lord will it," but be prepared also for God's judgement upon our nation for we have gone beyond tempting Him to punish us....to goading Him and mocking the mere mention of His righteous judgement upon a rebellious nation.

Of No Worldly Tyrant Be Thou Dread........2009
        
         John Hooper was a bishop in the Anglican church during the reign of Henry VIII and the glorious reign of Edward VI. He lived through the beginnings of the English Reformation and struggled, preaching often three and four times a day, against the forces that worked against the Gospel. He was burned at the state for his faithfulness in 1555 during the reign of Queen Mary. He is attributed with writing this poetry with a piece of coal on the wall of his jail cell:

Content thyself with patience
With Christ to bear the cross of pain;
Who can or will recompense
a thousand-fold, with joys again.
Let nothing cause thy heart to fail:
Launch out thy boat, hoist up thy sail,
Put from the shore;
And be thou sure thou shall remain
For evermore.........
Do not despair;
Of no worldly tyrant be thou dread;
Thy compass, which is God's Word, shall thee lead,
And the wind is fair.

Rowland Taylor was a pastor during the same period and was called to account as a villain for preaching the Gospel. When friends advised him not to report his response was:
What will ye have me do? I am now old, and have already lived too long, to see these terrible and most wicked days. Fly you, and do as your conscience leadeth you. I am fully determined, with God's grace, to go to the Bishop, and to tell him, to his beard, that he doth naught. God shall hereafter raise up teachers of His people, which shall, with much more diligence and fruit, teach them than I have done. For God will not forsake His church, though now for a time He trieth and correcteth us, and not without just cause. Rowland Taylor was also burned at the stake.

Bishop Hugh Latimer wrote: My wish is, that men may write on their hearts that the well-being of England depends not on commerce, or clever politicians, or steam, or armies, or navies, or gold, or iron, or coal, or corn, but on the maintenance of the principles of the English Reformation. Before being burned at the stake he turned to another martyr and famously said: Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man; we shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out.

In 1552 John Bradford wrote of his time period as similar to that of Noah and often forewarned the people of the plagues which would be brought to pass. He also was martyred and wrote: When I consider the cause of my condemnation, I cannot but lament that I do no more rejoice than I do, for it is God's verity and truth.

Nickolas Ridley was a chaplain to Henry VIII and later the Bishop of London and also ran afoul of Queen Mary for preaching the Gospel. In a farewell letter to prisoners he wrote: Farewell, dear brethren, farewell! And let us comfort our hearts in all troubles, and in death, with the Word of God: for heaven and earth shall perish, but the Word of the Lord endureth forever.

I write this post, originally posted in 2009, as encouragement to myself as well as anyone else! In order to secure our blessings today we must know what transpired in the past, and we ignore the sacrifices of others to our own peril. How trivial are the entertainments of today when compared to the sacrifices and most of all the faithfulness of those who came before us.


Referenced: Five English Reformers......19th century Anglican Preacher in England J. C. Ryle. Available at www.cvbbs.com 

Eye  Of  The Hurricane

           I bought a piece of artwork the other day from Ollie's Fine Art Gallery...well actually it was Ollie's Bargain Outlet and I paid $9.95 for it. It's a photograph put on canvas and is hanging on the wall in front of me as I write this. It's a theme that's never far from my mind... a sailing vessel navigating an unruly sea. The camera was placed just off of the wooden deck and is level with the horizon as the ship itself dips close to the waves off of the port side. I think that I was a sailor in a former daydream but this life is no daydream and Christians should always be navigating the seas, checking the sails and taking soundings with a firm hold on the rudder. The stock market is at a new high but it's in the eye of a hurricane, and that eye has just reached land. The people have come out to inspect the damage and make plans to rebuild unaware that the rear of the eyewall is descending upon them. The following blog is from March 24th of 2013. In retrospect, if only it were just a hurricane, but these are tremors shaking us enough to set the continental plates moving once again.

note:  There's an article on the Drudge Report as I write where investment trader Paul Tudor Jones spoke these words in a talk reported with the headline titled Paul Tudor Jones Warns this "Disastrous Market Mania" Will End "by Revolution, Taxes Or War"...... Here are some of his words, "We're in the middle of a disastrous market mania.....one of the worst of my life.......this gap between the 1 percent and the rest of America, and between the US and the rest of the world, cannot, and will not persist....historically, these kinds of gaps get closed in one of three ways: by revolution, higher taxes or wars....."

         I sit here and just wonder what percentage of Americans are becoming unnerved as the days wear on and chaos seemingly envelops so many areas of our society. Surely even the most skeptical can see that we are in much more than just another economic downturn, that we are dealing with catastrophe and not just difficulties in our foreign policy, that we on the verge of anarchy followed by tyranny rather than just political division, that we are becoming not only increasingly violent but suicidal, that we are almost breathless at times at what we read in the news, and in what is supposed be the Executive Branch of the United States of America... a Constitutional Republic.
         I have to believe that whatever the percentage is, it is increasing but I don't want to get too excited because I've felt this way before. I thought that surely the American public would overwhelmingly reject the Clintons but it didn't happen. I hoped that 9/11 would unite America...but it didn't. I thought that the economic collapse might convince Americans that Wall Street was not going to be the answer to our problems...it didn't happen, and I thought that the vast majority of Americans would be outraged that its Constitution was being dismantled article by article but as of yet, it hasn't happened.
         We have all probably seen a rope that was supporting something begin to look dangerously taut only to unravel and break before our very eyes. We are beyond a weakened rope holding up America and are in the unravelling process. This great empire is in its last days. My prayer has consistently been for God to allow 40 more years...one more period where we would be a source of stability in the world, one more generation added to a storied past of spreading freedom and liberty, one more testimony to the rest of the world that God upholds nations who trust in Him. I hope only for 40 years because of human nature. A couple decades of trusting solely in Jesus Christ and we surely would begin to fall away again. Pessimism, you say? I look at it as the opposite for it is only God's mercy and grace that permitted the world to reach this stage and God is as real today as when He, time and again, humbled and blessed repentant Israel.... as when He sent His church throughout the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ.... as when the Reformation of the 16th century exploded in the hearts and minds of peoples and nations.... as when he guided the Mayflower to Plymouth Rock and as when He crushed the occult Nazi Third Reich.
         We will turn to Him as a nation...should He will it. And if we do not then that is also His will, also glorious as it would be His plan and maybe...maybe...a precursor to His Second Coming in power and glory, the fulfillment of all of history and the final triumph of good over evil. As bleak as the future of our nation is it is within one word of restoration and that word would be spoken within the Godhead. If you are not overly concerned right now, any words that I write would surely seem ridiculous. If you are, then we are two of hopefully many who are petitioning God for one more manifestation of His power in mercy and blessings upon our nation...and therefore the world.

          In the Christian publishing world if the spine of the book has a little robed man holding up a Bible then no investigation is needed for it's Banner Of Truth Publishers and I trust their discernment implicitly. In the secular world it's a little almost castle like building with two arches for doors and white specks as windows throughout.....Regnery Publishing. I bought such a book a few days ago and did page through it and therefore knew where the author was going with it and even though I'm not on board with his thoughts I bought the book and finished it over a few days.
         Shawn Dubravac must be very smart for he taught at three universities named after great people....Mary Washngton, her hubby George W, and George Mason. Plus he has a Ph. D.; that means he's a doctor who makes people sick rather than making them unsick. A couple of the big chiefs associated with Apple and Google have blurbs on the back so it's a done deal, this guy knows what he's talking about. Add Regnery into it and I should be able to turn my 'discernment' button off and just enjoy.
          The book is Digital Destiny, How The New Age Of Data Will Transform The Way We Work, Live, And Commniscate. It's not that I disagree with the new world described in detail by the author. He's the expert here but I'm reminded of a few words once uttered by Charleton Heston that went on to be a rallying cry for millions of Americans....."From my cold dead hands..." Heston's cry was about taking away our guns but Dubravac never entered that arena; in his world they will be taking away our steering wheels. along with possiby our hearts, souls and maybe even our freedoms and liberties.
         Threre's no stopping it! Argue all you want and protest but the natural evolution of technology helped along by the economics of business will find a way just like other paradigm changes throughout history have. I don't see this as a futurist's book giving educated guesses on where technology will go. Rather it's more of a brochure on what is happening now. I could list thirty or forty areas where your life is in the process of changing right now. You would probably already know about 90% of them anyway. My interest in this book revolves around a paradigm change that not only I not do not want but if there is any hope that these people who are drunk on profit making and high on their own perceived genius then the issue in general has to be dealt with today.
         Let me give you just one far ranging example. We have all read about the car of the future that will have no human driver. It's expected that some automobile manufacturers will have a driverless car on the road in two or three years, with other manufacturers varying the dates four, six and eight years after that. I write 'far ranging' because it will take time for most everyone to have these automobiles. Why do this? They tell us that it will save lives. WEll, it's har to argue with that.....but not impossible. First I would question if that is the real reason or a handy excuse to clear their paths. My thought upon reading about this in Shawn Dubravac's book was what will happen to those who cannot afford these cars. Dupravac writes that before too long the cars may sell for as little as $30,000. I can afford a $30,000 car but there are tens of millions of people who cannot. What about them. Are we to return to a society where the serfs bow alongside the road as the carriages of the aristocracy amble across the bridged moat into the castle? SO, I set the book down for the evening only to check the Drudge Report out in the morning to see this headline "Musk: Someday driving a car will be illegal."