A Merchant of Time

“Time flies. It’s up to you to be the navigator,” quipped Robert Orbin.

The freshman year of college is a big learning curve in knowing how to be disciplined and organize yourself and your schedule. With all of the new freedoms, a lot of freshmen either get way too overcommitted in activities and social engagements, or they seem to major in vegging and hanging out.

Dr. Jack Presseau, my freshman adviser, shared a nugget of wisdom that remains with me today. Perfect for that role, Jack was accomplished enough to earn my respect, thoughtful and pastorly enough to emulate genuine care, and thorough and disciplined enough to challenge a young eighteen/nineteen-year old.

He gave a chart to me with the instruction to write down what I did every half hour of every day for one week. It made me begin thinking in terms of time management and learn to see my time in terms of short segments. Since then, I've learned to think of an hour as four segments of fifteen minutes, and many tasks can be completed in a fifteen-minute segment. It was also a good exercise to begin appreciating the power of keeping tasks and appointments written down. As Adrian Rogers said, "The weakest pen is greater than the strongest mind."

Our Private Worlds

Several thousand books have come through my library the past thirty years. Some stayed. Others found another life via Goodwill. A few helped change my life. One of those in the latter category is Gordon MacDonald's Ordering Your Private World. 

MacDonald shares his experience as a young pastor with lots of talent and a great personality. For most of his latter twenties he rode the wave of those two assets, while ignoring the guardrails of habitual disciplines.

After hitting an emotional-mental wall one day, a sobering reality struck him head-on: he could not coast the rest of his life and ministry on what had made him attractive and outwardly successful in his twenties. His gifts and natural charm would not enable him to be successful over the long haul of life.

He had to learn discipline.

MacDonald writes, "There came a time in my own life when I wanted to make sound decisions about the budgeting of my time, and I wanted to be free of that frantic pitch of daily life in which one is always playing catch-up." 

He learned nine symptoms of disorganization that characterize his life when disorder rules: 

1.  My desk takes on a cluttered appearance. 

2.  The symptoms tend to show themselves in the condition of my car.

3.  I become aware of a diminution in my self-esteem.

4.  There are a series of forgotten appointments, messages to which I failed to respond, and deadlines I have begun to miss.

5.  I tend to invest my energies in unproductive tasks.

6.  Disorganized people feel poorly about their work.

7.  Disorganized Christians rarely enjoy intimacy with God.

8.  The quality of my personal relationships usually reveals it. I may become irritable.

9. When we are disorganized in our control of time, we don’t like ourselves, our jobs, or much else about our worlds.

That first year of college I read Charles Hummel's book The Tyranny of the Urgent, digesting the concept that the use of our time will always include two conflicting needs fighting to become our master. Those two conflicts are important things versus urgent things. 

The disciplined person learns to get important things done. The undisciplined person is always a slave to urgent matters.

 

MacDonald’s Laws of Unmanaged Time

Macdonald writes, "Time must be budgeted!  We must resolve to seize control of our time.  The disorganized person must have a budgeting perspective of time."

In his chapter on time management, he shares four laws about unmanaged time.

 

Law #1:          

Unmanaged time flows toward my weaknesses.

Law #2:          

Unmanaged time comes under the influence of dominant people in my world.      

Law #3:          

Unmanaged time surrenders to the demands of all emergencies.

Law #4:          

Unmanaged time gets invested in things that gain public acclamation.


The struggle of wisely investing our time knows no age limit. I recommend MacDonald's book to anyone.  I read it again every two to three years. But I especially commend it to anyone age twenty-five to thirty-five. 

May we heed the warning of Hummel, who said, “Your greatest danger is letting the urgent things crowd out the important.”

And may we be found faithful with our time, echoing the words of J. H. Jewett: “The disciple of Christ is to be an expert merchant in the commodity of time.”

Pictures courtesy of Pixabay.

 

Raising Children of Integrity

 Our five-year-old son developed a habit of lying, and I was determined to stop it!  After numerous attempts at spanking as punishment, I wanted a creative approach to discipline.  Surely there was something I could do to nip this in the bud.

Finally, I devised my plan.  One year earlier, Hendrix became interested in the Star Wars movies.  One of his treasured possessions was my old collection of Star Wars action figures.  He thought they were gold. 

I decided that when he lied, he needed to feel pain in an area that mattered to him.  So, the new rule would be that he loses one action figure for every lie told.  One evening when he and I were home alone I initiated what I thought was the perfect tactic of creative discipline.  Hendrix told a lie, and I instructed him to bring me one Star Wars man and meet me in the kitchen.  He listened to my speech about the destructive nature of lies.  Then, I proceeded to heat up the frying pan.  I told my son that what I was about to do to his action figure would illustrate what lies do when they are told.  Hendrix and I watched as Han Solo slowly melted away until all that was left was a puddle of oozing plastic goo.

In my mind I thought, “What a great plan.  The little guy will remember this forever.  This may just break the pattern of lies tonight.  James Dobson and Kevin Leman will probably feature this idea in one of their books.”  I looked up at Hendrix, expecting him to break into uncontrollable sobs, wailing, “Daddy, I will never lie again!  I have learned my lesson!” 

Instead, Hendrix, who had not taken his eyes off of the frying pan, flashed his bright eyes at mine and excitedly asked, “Can we do another one, Daddy?”  So much for creative discipline. 

A Pancake House

Children catch many of life’s values as we model them in life – not as we plan the perfect lesson with a frying pan.  Several years after the Han Solo incident our family experienced an object lesson in integrity and truth-telling that Hendrix still remembers.    Vacationing in Pigeon Forge, we ate supper at one of the infamous pancake houses.  The restaurant had a large, separate foyer and gift shop where people paid for their meal.  After eating, we left the dining room and waited for several minutes in the unattended foyer.  My children began looking at some pocket knives for sale.  Finally, a manager entered.  He apologized for the delay and said, “Thank you for your honesty.  You have no idea how many people in your situation just leave the store and do not pay.”  Then, seeing Hendrix looking at the pocket knife, he said, “Please, you all may have the pocket knife at no charge.  That is my way of saying thank you for being honest.” 

Today, my family still has that knife with “Pigeon Forge” carved on its side.  And occasionally, one of the children will say, “That is the knife the man gave us because we were honest.”  That small knife reminds us of the importance of integrity. 

Here are some practical ways we can work at instilling integrity in our children.

Explain what integrity means

Teach children that integrity means to be the same on the inside as you claim to be on the outside.  The word is associated with the testing of metals.  Some rings are gold-plated.  Others are solid gold all the way through.  God wants us to be the real deal.

Read and memorize key verses

During mealtimes or family devotions, review Bible texts about the importance of truth-telling.  Some examples are Proverbs 12:19, Ephesians 4:15 & 25, John 8:44, John 14:6.

Read stories about people of integrity

As a family, read age-appropriate books or listen to radio theater stories of people with integrity (Gladys Aylward, Corrie ten Boom, and George Muller for example).  Then discuss lessons from their lives.  Also recommended are William Bennett’s The Children’s Book of Virtues and The Children’s Book of Heroes.  Three excellent sources for high quality radio theater are Lamplighter Theater, Adventures in Odyssey, and Focus on the Family's Radio Theater.   Our family has enjoyed dozens of hours the past several years with fabulous radio theater dramas!

Jesus is in the room

We try to teach our children that we always live in God’s presence.  At times we will say, “I need you to answer me with Jesus standing in the room with us.”

Sour tongue

When children do lie, take a small dab of vinegar and put it on their tongue.  We call this “sour tongue.”  The awful taste reminds them of how lies taste to God.

Model honesty and integrity

No better training exists than Dad and Mom living lives worth replicating before their children.  Those little ones see us day in and day out.  Remember, they catch what we do and say – and what we don’t.

May our children find us to be people of integrity – the real deal on the inside.

Pictures used by permission from Pixabay and Pexels.

Something We’ve Never Seen Before

 

As I write this, the news is abuzz with the FBI raid of President Donald Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago.

Several people have speculated that the Deep State has now officially crossed the Rubicon – passing the point of no return with irreversible consequences. Julius Caesar did so in A.D. 49, declaring war on the state and beginning a civil war.

Buck Sexton commented, “It almost feels like a preemptive coup… this is meant to prevent Donald Trump from being able to run again… This is the Rubicon being crossed. This is something we’ve never seen before. This is something that is outrageous. And the usage of the FBI in this way is really the nail in the coffin for so many Americans as to whether you can trust the FBI or trust the DOJ. Clearly not on political matters.”

Many Americans have suspected the FBI of widespread corruption for several years in various scenes of political theater like the January 6^th events, targeting political opponents, spying on Trump, and the crookedness swirling around Hillary Clinton’s server, The Clinton Foundation, and Hunter Biden’s laptop.

Multiple FBI whistleblowers, including those in senior positions, are raising the alarm about the level of deep corruption. Senator Chuck Grassley is hearing from many people who have come forward with testimony about such deception, spanning multiple election cycles and infecting investigative activity. You can contact his office at (202) 224-3744 or wb_reports@judiciary-rep.senate.gov if you have something to report, and they promise to protect your identity.

Laurens County’s own Congressman Jeff Duncan shared, “The FBI just raided a former President’s home — but failed to ever go to Hillary’s home for the private server, get Hunter’s laptop, or investigate the Clinton Foundation. . . .We have a two-tiered justice system in this country: one for the liberal elites and one for everyone else.

The weaponization and politicization of federal agencies is egregious and scary. These are Gestapo-like tactics. If the FBI can do this to President Trump, what do you think 87,000 new IRS agents will do to the American people? If this happens, the IRS would employ more than the Pentagon, State Department, FBI, and Border Patrol COMBINED. Americans are in a recession, and Democrats want to weaponize the IRS.”

It's impossible for me to not assume the Biden administration, which is Obama 2.0, would intentionally use a gargantuan IRS to bully, intimidate, and investigate political adversaries. That is the bigger issue at hand.

Franklin Graham shared recently, “This is a step in weaponizing the IRS to act against people, organizations, and businesses who have a voice of dissent against government agendas.”

We are living through days of massive corruption in what has become known as the Deep State. And that is why they must stop Trump, because he is standing in their way.

Roger Simon writes, “Call it The Big Panic. Call it something more insidious—the instigation of one-party rule. The Democrats, the Deep State, the Justice Department, the FBI, and all the intelligence agencies, globalists, propagandists of mainstream media, and all adherents of that one-party rule and enemies of republican government, will do anything—anything—to stop Trump from winning the 2024 election.”

I’ve often wondered the past couple of years how long it took the good people in Germany to realize the rumors they kept hearing about atrocities being done in the 1930s were not conspiracy theories. When they finally woke up, the political machine of Hitler’s party had so weaponized the government that good people were silenced into submission.

Margot Cleveland shares, “Against this two-pronged approach to justice, Americans need not lean conservative or support Trump to spot the scandal. And Americans need not care about politics to oppose the politicization of the Justice Department and FBI: They just need to care about the future of the country—one that cannot survive long if such corruption and cronyism continues.”

Dismally but accurately, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich writes, “The six-year period of corrupt deep state dishonesty by the FBI, many of the intelligence agencies, the Democrats in Congress, and the fake news media have brought us to the brink of a constitutional crisis. . . .

I think we are wavering between restoring the rule of law and the Constitution and decaying into a third world banana republic system of greed, dishonesty, political power, and law breaking on a grand scale. . . . We are watching the corruption spread through the system like a malevolent cancer eating the structure and fabric of our freedoms.”

May God have mercy on us. And may Gideons and Deborahs arise.

 

 

 

Heroes Needed

Our world needs heroes. For such examples, sometimes we look backward.

My youngest son and I are reading Eric Metaxas’ book, 7 Men and 7 Women and the Secret of their Greatness. I highly recommend it. One model is Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), the German theologian and pastor who protected German Jews and participated in a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. For such actions he hung at Flossenburg concentration camp.

Born into an extraordinary family, his parents taught their children to love learning of all kinds and to think logically, acting upon their beliefs. Dietrich “understood that ideas were never mere ideas but the foundations upon which hone built one’s actions and ultimately one’s life.”

A sort of epiphany during his eighteenth year while attending a Palm Sunday Eucharist at Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome forged a deep conviction with far-reaching consequences: the church transcended race, nationality, and culture, and that extended beyond German Lutherans.

While a seminary student in America, he participated in the country’s largest church – an African American one in Harlem, New York. He witnessed a people whose God was real and personal – not just philosophical or theological – in spite of their often-hard lives. The pastor, Adam Powell, Sr., challenged hearers to have a genuine relationship with Jesus and to put their faith into action in how they treated others: “Bonhoeffer seemed to link the idea of having deep faith in Jesus with taking political and social action.”

"The Word of God"

Returning to Germany in 1931 to teach at Berlin University, his friends noted a marked change. His faith now was a wedding of both intellect and heart. The seeds of theological liberalism were sprouting in Germany, including the higher criticism movement. In contrast to many Berlin theological circles, he “referred to the Bible as the Word of God, as though God existed and was alive and wanted to speak to us through it. The whole point of studying the text was to get to the God behind the text. The experience could not be merely intellectual but must also be personal and real.” The young teacher discipled his students to meditate on the Bible, pray, and love Jesus.

Adolf Hitler stepped into a vacuum of leadership in Germany, reeling from their defeat in World War I and lacking the experience as a country with governing themselves democratically. He brilliantly played to their felt needs, promising moderation and peace and claiming internal betrayal from Communists and Jews. This false idea of treachery – the Dolchstoss (stab-in-the-back) was the “fake news” of 1930’s Germany, and many accepted it as truth.

Historically, a prophet has divine insight to see beyond public rhetoric – and to distinguish between true and false. Prophets often go unheeded and receive gross mistreatment because their warnings seem out of sync with popular discourse.

Ideas and their Consequential Ends

Bonhoeffer saw things would get much worse for his country, and he realized Hitler’s National Socialists would lead the nation into catastrophic results. Two days after Hitler became Germany’s chancellor, the theologian delivered a radio speech chastising Hitler’s perverse idea of leadership. He warned the Germans the chancellor would mislead the people: he “saw from the very beginning what no one else seemed to see – that Hitler and the philosophy he represented would end tragically, and that Nazi ideology could not coexist with Christianity.”

Though Hitler pretended to be a Christian, he secretly despised it, wanting to slowly infiltrate the church with Nazi theology, unify German churches around his ideology, and “create a single state church that submitted to him alone.” He did so incrementally so most people wouldn’t be alarmed until it was too late.

Bonhoeffer, whose father taught him to think ideas through to their consequential ends, tried to warn fellow Germans. Convinced true Christians had to fight the Nazi movement with all their strength, Bonhoeffer sounded the alarm about the radical growing evil. He knew a “slumbering church would be no match for the Nazis.” Sadly, many German Christians did not understand or acknowledge what was at stake and were unwilling to fight the movement.

By the late 1930’s, Nazis increased the scope of government with many laws and regulations, limiting the freedoms of citizens and especially serious Christians. They eventually prohibited Dietrich from teaching and speaking publicly. As the Third Reich took complete control of society, he and other believers faced incredible ethical-moral choices. How does a Christian act under a government that enforces laws diametrically opposed to God’s Word?

Some of Bonhoeffer’s family were involved in a conspiracy against Hitler. Through immense, prayerful consideration, they agreed with the motto referenced in the American Revolution: “Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.” As Adolf consolidated his power, underground conversations continued about how to stop the Fuhrer. They “believed that to do anything less was to shrink from God’s call to act upon one’s beliefs.”

As World War II began, Dietrich became a double agent, openly pretending to be a part of the Third Reich, while secretly working with the wide network of conspirators to destroy it.

While working underground to save the lives of seven Jews, Gestapo leaders discovered the plan and arrested Bonhoeffer at his parents’ home. At Berlin’s Tegel military prison, he wrote his famous Letters and Papers from Prison. Fifteen months after his arrest, conspirators enacted the Valkyrie plot  - a failed attempt to assassinate the Fuhrer with bombs. The vast conspiracy now exposed, names were revealed, including Dietrich’s.

Taken to an underground high-security prison, he prepared for death, which he called “the last station on the road to freedom.” Later transferred to Flossenburg  concentration camp, under direct orders of Hitler, Dietrich was executed on April 9.

The cost of discipleship for Bonhoeffer was great. Metaxas summarizes, “he lived his whole life to illustrate . . . that anyone who pays a price or who suffers for obeying God’s will is worthy of our celebration.”

 

Picture used by permission from Pixabay.

STRANGE NEW WORLD

 

Looks like a great read by Carl Trueman.

STRANGE NEW WORLD: HOW THINKERS AND ACTIVISTS REDEFINED IDENTITY AND SPARKED THE SEXUAL REVOLUTION

"He explains just how the West's preoccupation with a navel-gazing concern for emotional 'authenticity' has crippled our ability to think - and is consequently undermining the future of our civilization."

Trueman confronts the current era of "expressive individualism," showing readers how to engage in a culture that's often hostile to Christian beliefs.

Access it here.

Battle for the American Mind

Behind a smokescreen of “preparing students for the new industrial economy,” early progressives had political control in mind. America’s original schools didn’t just make kids memorize facts or learn skills; they taught them to think freely and arrive at wisdom. They assigned the classics, inspired love of God and country, and raised future citizens that changed the world forever.

Today, after 16,000 hours of K-12 indoctrination, our kids come out of government schools hating America. They roll their eyes at religion and disdain our history. We spend more money on education than ever, but kids can barely read and write—let alone reason with discernment. Western culture is on the ropes. Kids are bored and aimless, flailing to find purpose in a system that says racial and gender identity is everything.

But indoctrination was not the progressive master stroke— it was a byproduct. In stealth, they removed an educational component that sustained every free people in history. If it is not restored, America, as we know it, will cease to exist as a republic.

Battle for the American Mind is the untold story of the Progressive plan to neutralize the basis of our Republic – by removing the one ingredient that had sustained Western Civilization for thousands of years. Pete Hegseth and David Goodwin explain why, no matter what political skirmishes conservatives win, progressives are winning the war—and control the “supply lines” of future citizens. Reversing this reality will require parents to radically reorient their children’s education; even most homeschooling and Christian schooling are infused with progressive assumptions. We need to recover a lost philosophy of education – grounded in virtue and excellence – that can arm future generations to fight for freedom. It’s called classical Christian education. Never heard of it? You’re not alone.

See the book here.

Country Star Tops Chart with New Anti-Woke Song

 

Country star John Rich is shooting up the charts with his new song “Progress,” and it has one clear message: Most Americans don’t want what the left calls “progress.”

One half of the successful country music duo Big and Rich, Rich has a clear message for President Joe Biden and the Democrats. From the very outset, the song is effective in delivering this idea.

“There’s a hole in this country. Where its heart used to be,” Rich began. “Old Glory’s divided, on fire in the streets.”

Read the entire article by Grant Atkinson at The Western Journal.

The Real Story of January 6 | Documentary

 

“The Real Story of January 6,” a documentary by The Epoch Times, reveals the truth that has been hidden from the American people. While a narrative has been set that what took place that day was an insurrection, key events and witnesses have been ignored, until now. The documentary takes an unvarnished look at police use of force and the deaths that resulted in some measure from it. The film asks tough questions about who was responsible for the chaos that day. With compelling interviews and exclusive video footage, the documentary tells the real story of January 6.

What Really Happened on January 6?

While the dust from Jan. 6, 2021, has long cleared, it has been replaced by a smoke screen. A carefully crafted narrative has been set that claims the events of that day amounted to a “violent insurrection.” This claim, however, does not match the facts. “The Real Story of January 6” takes an objective look at what happened through the eyes of those who were there. The Epoch Times provides the first comprehensive look into what really happened that day. The Truth can’t be hidden.

​
We are Being Censored, Help Spread This Documentary

While this documentary is groundbreaking in providing a complete overview of what happened on January 6, The Epoch Times has been censored and suppressed by Big Tech. In order to spread the documentary, The Epoch Times relies on its own Epoch TV as well as other non-cancelable platforms to spread the truth. Stand up for free speech and oppose censorship by sharing the documentary with as many people as you can.

View the documentary here.

See also Ashli Babbitt Was ‘Murdered’ Under Color of Authority on Jan. 6: Use-of-Force Expert.

 

Political Theater: The January 6 Committee

 

The totalitarian pattern of the January 6 Committee is the biggest show trial I’ve seen in my fifty years in America. It’s a narrative piece for the next Presidential election.

The similarities to the staged show trials of Vladimir Lenin’s Soviet dictatorship are eerie and troubling, which were called “political theater intended for the instruction of the masses” (Engelstein in “Russia in Flames”). Newt Gingrich writes, “The parallels between the use of language by the woke Big Government Socialists and the propaganda techniques of the Leninist-Stalinist revolution are real and frightening. . . . They treat us as though we’re too stupid to see through a rigged game, a stacked deck, and a fraud of carefully selected and edited propaganda.”

The Committee sessions are carefully designed by a TV professional.

An incredible amount of selective editing of both video and papers were deceptively used.

The Committee kept the vast majority of the 1000 interviews and 25,000 documents hidden and in secret.

They are in no way bipartisan. Pelosi forebade Republican nominees to serve on the Committee – unless they had voted to impeach Trump. No speaker has ever before rejected the minority party’s nominees.

The clown show allows no dissenting views.

Victor Davis Hanson writes, “Its slick Hollywood-produced optics demonstrate that the committee has no interest in inconvenient facts. Why did a Capitol officer lethally shoot a petite unarmed woman entering a Capitol window? Why did the committee not investigate whether large numbers of FBI agents and informants were among the crowd? After all, progressive New York Times reporter Matthew Rosenberg who was there on Jan. 6 claimed, ‘There were a ton of FBI informants amongst the people who attacked the Capitol.’ . .  . A real committee would investigate why there were lots of warnings that a large crowd would assemble, but apparently little government follow-up to ensure security. A real committee would learn why the government and media insisted that officer Brian Sicknick was killed by Trump supporters – even when it was known he died of natural causes.”

Nick Searcy and Chris Burgard recently released a documentary called “Capitol Punishment” that reveals items the kangaroo trial doesn’t want us to know. Interviewing many Americans who were there on January 6, it reveals their experience was vastly different than what the media claimed.

Searcy shares, “It was just a day of orchestrated events that anybody that knew what they were looking for saw. I mean, we saw people changing from Antifa black-block into MAGA clothes. These same people were trying to get us to attack the Capitol Police.”

They interview Aaron Babbitt, the husband of the former navy officer Ashli Babbit - shot by Capitol Police. New footage shows her telling people to stop breaking the doors – stop trying to break in - just prior to her death. The fourteen-year military veteran and law enforcement specialist was acting as a law enforcement professional, telling the less-experienced cops to get backup now.

Other footage shows Capitol Police in different areas calmly removing barriers, opening doors, and ushering people into the building. Don’t look for it on YouTube. Any mention of election fraud is banned from their propaganda.

On January 6, 2021, I simultaneously watched two screens. One showed the final moments of the Trump rally; the other, showed US Capitol livestream footage, moving between the Congressional election debate and other areas of the building. As President Trump started dismissing the crowd, a guard inside the Capitol yelled something like, “They’re coming in.” I braced myself, waiting for the type of rioters and looters that destroyed businesses, statues, and cities in the 2020 riots. Instead, I watched people resembling smalltown Americans calmly walking in a single-file line.

A rotten trail leads to Nancy Pelosi’s office revealing 50% of the Capitol Police not working that day, intelligence information never disseminated to them, and Trump’s request for 10,000 additional National Guard troops flatly denied.

Where was the trial for the 2020 four months of rioting, arson, and stealing? Over 35 people died with 1500 injured police officers, about 14,000 arrests, and between $1-2 billion in damage to property.

Most of those arrested for violence at “iconic government buildings, from courthouses to police precincts" (Hanson) were simply released. Many of those arrested from January 6 are denied a speedy trial, shamed, and assumed guilty with dishonest framing.

Searcy explains, “This is like a terror tactic. They’re trying to instill fear in the citizenry, that if you stand up to the government and say, ‘I believe the election was stolen and shouldn’t have been certified,’ you’re committing some vile act. They’re trying to send a message to everybody: ‘Do not ever resist us again or this is what will happen to you.’”

Hanson goes on to warn, “None of the questions will be answered because none will be asked because the committee’s role is not inquiry but confirmation of a useful narrative.”

The Committee doesn’t want facts, because truth doesn’t conform to their political narrative.

One obvious rhetorical question is, “Would the committee even exist if Trump were not considering running for President a third time?”

In summary, Gingrich aptly warns, “Clearly, the left understands it can’t tell the American people the truth. It must hide the facts and present only the falsehoods. This is why the Jan. 6 Committee has been so manipulative and consistently secretive and dishonest.”

See the best articles I've read recently on the January 6 show trial.

Pictures used courtesy of Pixabay

Best Articles I've Seen on the January 6 Show Trial

 

Lenin’s Show Trials and the Jan. 6 Committee by Newt Gingrich

Trust the American People, Not the Jan. 6 Committee by Newt Gingrich

What the Jan. 6 Committee Might Have Been by Victor Davis Hanson

Democrats’ Jan. 6 Fiasco Is Just Another Example of Conservatives Being Treated as Second-Class Citizens by Gabe Kaminsky

What If? Questions a Bipartisan Probe of Jan. 6 Might Have Answered by Fred Lucas

Movie ‘Capitol Punishment’ Tells Stories You Won’t Hear From Jan. 6 Committee by Rob Bluey

Congress Ignores Pressing National Business While It Obsesses on Jan. 6 by Star Parker

The Trump-Haters Are Now Desperate by Conrad Black

Picture used from Pexels

Eva Ann Wilson Via Pens Family Tree Book

 

My aunt Eva Ann Via was interviewed recently by Paul Brown about her family history book, Piercetown Cousins. Eva Ann grew up in Williamston, South Carolina.

Featured on EntrePastors Podcast

 

Last week, Jon Sanders interviewed me on his and Les Hughes' EntrePastors podcast. Sanders and Hughes encourage pastors to develop their skills and income potential in the marketplace. I recently got connected to them after they heard Dan Miller mention me on his 48 Days podcast.

Their website includes:

"Following God's calling into ministry doesn't mean you have to live a life of scarcity and meagerness. 

We believe God is a God of abundance who gave you multiple talents to build and serve His Kingdom and by using ALL of your God-given talents, you take better care of yourself and your family and become a better pastor in the process."

My interview, #45, is titled "Understanding Your Calling."

Listen to it here.

America's 'Explicit Covenant with God'

 

"They saw the Constitution as being a very religiously-based document," said Barton. "It was also a very covenantal-based document. We made a covenant. The Constitution is a covenant of these states."

He went on, "The average length of a constitution in the history of the world was 17 years. So how have we gone 230 when everybody else was going 17?   And so political science professors looked to see where the Founders got their ideas."

Barton pointed out they studied 3,154 direct quotes from these Founders' political writings and discovered how much God's Word figured in them.

He summed up, "The number one source was the Bible: 34 percent of all those quotes in those political documents, etc., came out of the Bible."

Read the entire article by Paul Strand at CBN here.

Image courtesy of Pixabay

This Independence Day, Celebrate America’s History of Self-Governance

 

"Americans were historically unique — dare I say exceptional — in their approach to governance. And this was largely dictated by culture more than anything. 

It’s important to remember this history, even 245 years after the Founders declared independence. Today, many Americans are pessimistic about the future of their country — and for good reason. But looking at the overall arc of American history, it’s difficult not to be an optimist. The Founders endured revolution, Lincoln endured civil war, and they all remained ever optimistic about this country as humanity’s last best hope. 

As John Adams predicted, American independence would be “the most memorable epoch” in the country’s history, celebrated for generations as a day of 'deliverance.' This Fourth of July, Americans should continue to prove him right." 

Read the entire article by Newt Gingrich here.

Why I Support Ellen Weaver for SC Superintendent of Education

 

Donald Trump, in my opinion, is the best President we’ve had since Ronald Reagan (in terms of accomplishments that helped our nation). Yet he was completely an outsider to politics. Many people scoffed at a non-politician running. And many people within the system (The Deep State) refused to ever accept him.

Sometimes the best person to help reform a system is someone not directly within that system. That's why I'm supporting Ellen Weaver for the Superintendent of Education in South Carolina.

“We don’t need to be talking about politically-divisive issues in the classroom. . . . We’ve been having the same conversations in education for decades now and nothing seems to change. I believe that it can change.” - Weaver

Being a homeschool family, for years we’ve known there are thousands and thousands of great educators out there who have no degree and no public school classroom experience. With homeschool alone, there are about 3.7 million HS students in the USA, and the last SC stat I saw was more than 30K. That doesn’t include private or charter schools. And homeschool, private, and charter school families will never accept the idea that the public system is superior just because it is bigger. There are some great educators in the government-run system (I’ve known quite a few) and some not-so great ones (known a few of them too!). 

I’m deeply impressed with Weaver’s leadership experience and involvement in non-traditional approaches to education. She sees the need to bring a hard focus back to the basics of phonics, literacy, critical thinking, math, and life skills like character education, personal finance, and practical trade classes.

In every state, one of the big looming battles is what to do with Critical Race Theory – and what schools (including elementary ones) will teach about gender identity. The Left will be pushing very hard the next several years on this. Weaver is deeply committed to standing up against these lies and agendas. That is one of the main reasons I believe so many solid, conservative, Christian, principled leaders in SC have supported her. Sometimes a person outside of the system is better prepared to stand up against such ideology.

In their 2022 #1 New York Times Bestseller, Battle for the American Mind, Pete Hegseth and David Goodwin share in scary detail how the Progressive Left, rooted in Marxism, has taken over many of America's institutions, including much of public education. They write, "The Right has long held the right principles, but the Left controls the positions. Changing that is part of the solution."

Some people criticize Weaver because she does not yet have the required Masters Degree, which she plans to complete before November. As a former student who earned a B.A., M.Div., and D.Min., I know that completing a degree in no way guarantees your ability for a position. What it does is simply acknowledge you completed the requirements for certain classes.

I appreciate what Dan Miller writes about education: 

"What is education? Is our traditional thinking about getting a degree accurate? The dictionary defines education as 'the process of training and developing the knowledge, skill, mind, and character' of a person. With this definition we can see that education occurs in many ways and certainly is not confined to the traditional classroom." (Dan Miller, 48 Days to the Work You Love Application Guide, 136).

Dan goes on to say . . .

There is a segment of the population that believes a diploma and an education are synonymous. They aren't. I've met plenty of people with degrees from well-respected institutions who floundered because they lacked a real education. I've also met plenty of well-educated people without degrees at all. The letters behind a person's name reflect their degrees; their lives reflect their education.

Don't hear me say that formal education isn't valuable; it is. But the lack of a formal education doesn't automatically limit your potential for success. You can do great things with or without formal education. It's more about who you are right now.

I love the process of learning and have pursued that in multiple ways. Yes, I did go to college and have both a bachelor's and master's degrees in psychology. I completed my doctoral studies but never turned in a dissertation. Instead of creating a document for four old guys to read I wrote a book that a whole lot of people have read . . . and paid for! Today, I write, speak, and coach. Along the way I've owned various businesses and done everything from painting houses to selling cars. Everything I've done has been educational" (50).

Weaver's campaign’s website  and the organization she leads, Palmetto Promise Institute, impress me that Ellen is someone with plenty of experience and education to fill the shoes of this position. She worked closely for 12 years with Senator Jim Demint, and she chairs the Education Oversight Committee. Weaver received more than twenty-six endorsements from conservative, South Carolina lawmakers, including Jeff Duncan, Ralph Norman, and Tim Scott.

That’s enough for me to support her and encourage others to do the same!

I believe one of the next great battlefields for the heart of America will be our local school boards. Parents need to be prepared. Check out FRC Action's School Board Boot Camp here.

Why Celebrate America in Church this Sunday?

 This article was first published in 2021.

Oh, wonderful July! Fireworks, barbecues, and community parties welcome this hot summer month. My heart beats with pride as I listen to patriotic music. I recently added two new CD’s to my patriotic collection: American Jubilee by the Cincinnati Pops and For God and Country by Dolly Parton. How wonderful to be an American and live in the land of the free.

My wife and I try to instill in our children a taste of the incredible heritage we have as citizens of the United States of America. That heritage is one to be embraced and valued. A careful look at our Founding Fathers and their documents reveal an overwhelming bias toward biblical Christianity.

Fifty-five delegates attended the Constitutional Convention of 1787, which produced the Constitution of the United States. The religious sympathies of this core group of men shaped the foundations of our republic: 28 Episcopalians, eight Presbyterians, seven Congregationalists, two Lutherans, two Dutch Reformed, two Methodists, two Roman Catholics, one unknown, and only three deists. So, 93 percent of the attendees were self-proclaimed Christians.

The American Patriot’s Bible shares, “While much has been written in recent years to try to dismiss the fact that America was founded upon the biblical principles of Judeo-Christianity, all the revisionism in the world cannot change the facts. Anyone who examines the original writings, personal correspondence, biographies, and public statements of the individuals who were instrumental in the founding of America will find an abundance of quotations showing the profound extent to which their thinking and lives were influenced by a Christian worldview.”

High View of God

America’s Founders shared a high view of the Lord.

U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall wrote, “With us, Christianity and religion are identified. It would be strange, indeed, if with such a people our institutions did not presuppose Christianity and did not often refer to it and exhibit relations with it.” 

And U.S. Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story wrote, “One of the beautiful boasts of our municipal jurisprudence is that Christianity is a part of the Common Law. There never has been a period in which the Common Law did not recognize Christianity as lying at its foundations.”

Strong Belief in the Bible

The New England Primer, America’s first textbook, taught the ABCs to children by memorizing basic biblical truths and lessons about life: "A. In Adam’s fall, we sinned all. B. Heaven to find, the Bible mind. C. Christ crucified for sinners died. The Founding Fathers stressed the relationship between a sound education based upon biblical absolutes and the future of the nation." 

Noah Webster wrote, “The moral principles and precepts found in the Scriptures ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws.” 

In 1791, Benjamin Rush, signer of the Declaration and Constitution, Surgeon General of the Continental Army, and leading educator, argued why the Bible should never be removed from public education: “In contemplating the political institutions of the United States, I lament that we waste so much time and money in punishing crimes and take so little pains to prevent them.” 

In his Essays, Literary, Moral & Philosophical, he wrote, “The Bible, when not read in schools, is seldom read in any subsequent period of life… [T]he Bible… should be read in our schools in preference to all other books because it contains the greatest portion of that kind of knowledge which is calculated to produce private and public happiness.”

George Washington, addressing the Synod of the Dutch Reformed Church in 1789 shared that national morality could not prevail without religious principle.  To try and remove the religious influence is to “shake the foundation of the fabric” of our country.

Chief Justice John Jay, first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and Vice-President of the American Bible Society, understood this reality.  He wrote, Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation, to select and prefer Christians for their rulers. 

Many years later, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, shares in his book A Nation Like No Other, “The Founders’ distinctively Christian faith is well documented, as is their conviction that government must be infused with Christian principles.”

Judeo-Christian Ethic

The Founding Fathers’ documents shaped the genesis of this nation, springing from a common understanding, or what we today call “worldview,” of how the Creator designed life to work. This approach to life is known  as the Seven Principles of the Judeo- Christian Ethic, rooted in values from the Old and New Testaments.

1. The dignity of human life. God made every person in His image, and thus every human has certain “unalienable rights.”

2. The traditional monogamous marriage. The biblical family unit is the basic building block of our society.

3. A national work ethic. Working hard represents dignity, and our free enterprise system encourages it.

4. The right to a God-centered education. Our forefathers intended an education system that taught the Bible, Creationism, and moral obligation.

5. The Abrahamic Covenant. Covenantal theology understands that obedience to God yields blessing for a nation or individual.

6. Common decency. America is great when her people follow the Golden Rule, treating others as they want to be treated.

7. Divinely ordained establishments. God established the home, civil government, and the church.

The founders of America understood the constitutions, laws, and agreements of federal and state governments depended on the acceptance of these basic ethics.

 

Remember Correctly

It grieves me the more I hear pastors who do not want to include patriotism in their churches. 

I believe the church is the best place to celebrate and remember our national heritage. To let our great American special days pass by hardly recognized by the local church is an opportunity lost.

In years past, Baptist congregations celebrated our nation’s birthday with gusto. Churches like First Baptist Jacksonville, Florida, Belleview Baptist Church in Memphis, First Baptist Columbia, SC, First Baptist Atlanta, First Baptist Dallas, TX, and Thomas Road Baptist Church enjoyed extravagant God and Country services, recognizing our Armed Forces, saluting the flag, and singing good old American songs.

You can watch the "Look Up, America" celebration from First Jacksonville in July, 1986, here.

Today, some Christians call such celebrations bordering on idolatry, and a growing number of pastors shy away from including God and Country in our worship gatherings.

The Old Testament Law and Prophets repeatedly warned of the tendency to forget – or to not remember correctly. In different eras, generations arose that forgot their heritage and did not remember what God had said or done.

Today in America, we face a growing tendency to forget our godly, Chrisitan heritage – and to not remember our history correctly. The Left consistently libels America as fundamentally flawed, racist, and in need of massive change. They perpetuate the lie that to remember our Founding Fathers is "structural racism" - another attempt from the Left to reshape our thinking. And I believe the Left is not only influencing the world wrongly – but parts of the church.

July 4^th, among other American holidays like Thanksgiving, Memorial Day, and Veterans Day, are opportunities ripe for teaching and remembering correctly. It is a time to remind ourselves and our congregations of the Christian foundation upon which we stand. Take the time to remind people that Christianity is one of the main reasons America became great.

And, it's a time to call God's people to return to God on behalf of the nation in repentance and faith.

David Lane recently wrote, “Secularism was inaugurated as America’s official religion by eight U.S. Supreme Court Justices in the mid-20th century. And with that they tore down the American Founders’ Christian bulwark of liberty and autonomy that had been responsible for 350 remarkable years of American history.”

If the church refuses to celebrate our covenantal national heritage and leaves it to the secular world, we abdicate our responsibility and privilege to remember and pass on those foundational concepts to others. And the country will continue remembering incorrectly.

As Christian parents, pastors, and Americans, may we instill in our children a love and respect for our nation. And may we proudly proclaim together, “In God we trust!

The Family Research Council and their Watchmen on the Wall ministry offer excellent resources for pastors to do what I suggest in this article - lead your people to remember our godly heritage. See Stand Courageous here and  Call 2 Fall here.

Here is a resource specifically about the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

See related resources:

Three Cs That Made America Great: Christianity, Capitalism and the Constitution  Mike Huckabee

America's Godly Heritage

The American Heritage Series

Building on the American Heritage Series

The American Patriot's Bible from Thomas Nelson

A Nation Like No Other by Newt Gingrich

Christians: Engage Politics and the Public Square

Pictures used by permission from Pixabay.