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God’s message to me: It is important to understand the times. Past, present and future come together to form a picture we can use to understand our place in the world and God’s will for us. We are not of this world but we are in it and we are expected to effect it for the better. We cannot hope to do that unless we understand and act on the times.
1) Stand up for what God’s word tells us.
2) Stand up for the principles that protect our rights to worship and to teach the truth.
3) Stand up for God’s chosen people Israel.
4) Stand against those who label sin as personal choice.
5) Stand against those who demand we accept their “personal choice”.
6) Stand against those who redefine Christianity and Godliness as accepting everyone regardless of evil.
7) Stand up for the truth of the Gospel.
In the past few years I have heard leaders tell us that religion is the source of evil, that man is the source of law, that government is the source of wisdom, that Israel is a racist and evil state, that the US Constitution is an impediment to government and that the government can ignore the rights of the people when it is in the governments best interest(that last one is a supreme court decision regarding campaign finance reform). I see the present. I understand the past and how the progressives led us into the evils of Eugenics and Socialism while pulling us away from God. I see the future in the pages of scripture and know that Christ will return within my own life expectancy.
Promises: God’s word will tell us what is coming and what to do about it if we simply read it. While current events in the US may not be precisely predicted in scripture, the scripture can still be applied. Through it we know when what our leaders are doing is leading us in opposition to God. We can also see when the path our country is taking is right, wrong or even leading towards the end times.
Commands: Understand God’s word. When Saul was killed and David was made king there was a period of strife in the land because of those who didn’t understand or refused to acknowledge the prophecy of Samuel. Saul had disobeyed God in his first major act as king and was doomed by God to lose the kingdom. David was raised up to be Saul’s replacement. Those who knew and understood God’s will in the matter joined him immediately. Those who failed to keep up with what was going on found themselves on the wrong side of God’s will.
Timeless principles: Those who do not understand history are doomed to repeat it. The time of the Judges was a steady stream of Israelites repeating the same mistakes over and over again. The time of the kings was a steady stream of kings who followed God and kings who didn’t and history meaning nothing to most of them. Josiah learned history through the book of the law and mourned and prayed forgiveness for the sins of his fathers. Most kings served God or didn’t based on personality. Some would follow in their father’s footsteps while others did the opposite of their fathers. Few ever gave a glance at history or the idea of turning from God would scare them to death.
How can I apply what I’ve learned: Understand the times. 1 Chronicles 12:32 mentions that members of the tribe of Issachar, that understood the times, came to make David king. God commands us in many places to understand the times and to understand prophecy so that we can be prepared. Like the men of Issachar that did not come, we will no be prepared to do the right thing and avoid the wrong actions if we don’t know what is happening and what God has to say about it.
more to learn for in-depth study: Keeping up with current events, understanding politics, knowing prophecy and learning history are all things people tend to avoid. Without and understanding of history you cannot hope to understand the present or to know the future. (those who don’t learn history are doomed to repeat it) Without understanding current events you will find the world passes you by. Without understanding politics you will find others control your life and you don’t even know why. Without understanding prophecy you will not know how the other 3 subjects apply to God’s plan and how you should react to what is happening and what is coming.
tomorrow: First Chronicles 13-16
Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Thursday, April 9, 2009
First Kings 1
God’s message to me: We must act on God’s will and remember that we are either sheltered by his will or overcome by it. Adonijah was the little brother of Absalom and even had the same mother but didn’t learn anything from his big brothers foolishness. As David was growing to old to be effective Adonijah convinced many in leadership to follow him and invited them to a feast and sacrifice to make him king. He didn’t invite the prophet, the priest or any others who knew that God had planned to place Solomon in power and he sought to reinforce his position so that Solomon couldn’t take the throne after David’s death.
David failed to correct Adonijah. He simply ignored his foolishness until Adonijah was celebrating his being made king.
Promises: God will not be subverted. He intended Solomon to be king and none who attempted to take the throne from him succeeded.
Commands: Do not attempt to undermine God’s will. Adonijah knew full well that God and David intended Solomon to be the next king. Because he knew this he was careful not to include Solomon or any of the people involved in choosing Solomon as the successor to celebrate and make him king. He thought he could get around the issue by reinforcing his position enough to get everyone else behind him before Solomon could be named. Once in power he could easily overcome them all. God ensured that his treachery was found out and undermined before he could get a following and so those who had come to help him become king abandoned him and left him in fear that Solomon would kill him for treason.
Timeless principles: The surest way to get a power-hungry person to go to far is to not stop him when he is starting out. Adonijah and his brother Absalom could have both been dealt with when they first started making trouble and a great deal of pain would have been averted. David failed to discipline his sons and to correct their improper behavior resulting in long term trouble.
How can I apply what I’ve learned: Don’t sit still and quiet when you see trouble coming.
Allow me to demonstrate at the risk of offending some who read this. This country is heading down a road of pain because we have allowed our leaders to get away with to much. As a result of our failure to reign them in when they first started overreaching their authority, we now have a government who believes they have the authority to:
Remove the CEO of a private company from his job.
Appoint their own people to run private companies.
Confiscate the earnings of private individuals without due process or cause.
Tell private citizens what they can buy and how much of it they can buy.
Punish private individuals for being successful.
let’s skip past the political and move on to security.
Threaten God’s chosen people if they defend themselves.
Sanction God’s chosen people for defending themselves.
Force God’s chosen people to bow to those who wish their destruction.
Demand God’s chosen people give up part of the land Promised to them by God to people who want to destroy them.
Do I really need to continue?
Bless Israel, Be blessed. Curse/oppress Israel and face destruction. The bible is extraordinarily clear on this matter. We have given over the running of our nation to a group of people who will use our resources and power to undermine Israel, tear down our Judeao-Christian values, weaken our defenses and empower the enemies of the United States, Israel and God and the only reason they have been able to gain the power to do this is because we didn’t stop them. The constitution doesn’t grant the power they are wielding. The constitution forbids them from having most of these abilities and yet, when they took that power for themselves and admitted, “it’s a violation of the constitution but the government needs to have the power anyway”, no one stopped them. Now we will pay the price.
Don’t believe me? Look at the history, The great depression and WWII came after we backed the idea of Eugenics which declared Jews were subhuman and a drain on society. The recession and problems of the late 1970’s including the Iran Hostage Crises came after the United States demanded that Israel trade land for peace. Clinton tried to make similar demands without the full backing of the legislature and the personal cost could be seen in the constant cloud of legal scandals over his administration. As former president Bush and current President Obama continued to pursue more and more strenuous actions to force land for peace and “2 state solutions” on God’s chosen people we have dipped into one of the worst recessions in decades, had a US Cargo ship captured by pirates and slipped quickly into the anarchy we haven’t seen since 1979.
See a problem? Fight the problem. If you don’t, you can count on the problem to get a lot bigger until your forced to confront it at much greater cost.
tomorrow: First Kings 2-4
David failed to correct Adonijah. He simply ignored his foolishness until Adonijah was celebrating his being made king.
Promises: God will not be subverted. He intended Solomon to be king and none who attempted to take the throne from him succeeded.
Commands: Do not attempt to undermine God’s will. Adonijah knew full well that God and David intended Solomon to be the next king. Because he knew this he was careful not to include Solomon or any of the people involved in choosing Solomon as the successor to celebrate and make him king. He thought he could get around the issue by reinforcing his position enough to get everyone else behind him before Solomon could be named. Once in power he could easily overcome them all. God ensured that his treachery was found out and undermined before he could get a following and so those who had come to help him become king abandoned him and left him in fear that Solomon would kill him for treason.
Timeless principles: The surest way to get a power-hungry person to go to far is to not stop him when he is starting out. Adonijah and his brother Absalom could have both been dealt with when they first started making trouble and a great deal of pain would have been averted. David failed to discipline his sons and to correct their improper behavior resulting in long term trouble.
How can I apply what I’ve learned: Don’t sit still and quiet when you see trouble coming.
Allow me to demonstrate at the risk of offending some who read this. This country is heading down a road of pain because we have allowed our leaders to get away with to much. As a result of our failure to reign them in when they first started overreaching their authority, we now have a government who believes they have the authority to:
Remove the CEO of a private company from his job.
Appoint their own people to run private companies.
Confiscate the earnings of private individuals without due process or cause.
Tell private citizens what they can buy and how much of it they can buy.
Punish private individuals for being successful.
let’s skip past the political and move on to security.
Threaten God’s chosen people if they defend themselves.
Sanction God’s chosen people for defending themselves.
Force God’s chosen people to bow to those who wish their destruction.
Demand God’s chosen people give up part of the land Promised to them by God to people who want to destroy them.
Do I really need to continue?
Bless Israel, Be blessed. Curse/oppress Israel and face destruction. The bible is extraordinarily clear on this matter. We have given over the running of our nation to a group of people who will use our resources and power to undermine Israel, tear down our Judeao-Christian values, weaken our defenses and empower the enemies of the United States, Israel and God and the only reason they have been able to gain the power to do this is because we didn’t stop them. The constitution doesn’t grant the power they are wielding. The constitution forbids them from having most of these abilities and yet, when they took that power for themselves and admitted, “it’s a violation of the constitution but the government needs to have the power anyway”, no one stopped them. Now we will pay the price.
Don’t believe me? Look at the history, The great depression and WWII came after we backed the idea of Eugenics which declared Jews were subhuman and a drain on society. The recession and problems of the late 1970’s including the Iran Hostage Crises came after the United States demanded that Israel trade land for peace. Clinton tried to make similar demands without the full backing of the legislature and the personal cost could be seen in the constant cloud of legal scandals over his administration. As former president Bush and current President Obama continued to pursue more and more strenuous actions to force land for peace and “2 state solutions” on God’s chosen people we have dipped into one of the worst recessions in decades, had a US Cargo ship captured by pirates and slipped quickly into the anarchy we haven’t seen since 1979.
See a problem? Fight the problem. If you don’t, you can count on the problem to get a lot bigger until your forced to confront it at much greater cost.
tomorrow: First Kings 2-4
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