Dear
Present Truth Magazine Subscriber:
We
are glad to have you as a subscriber to our Present Truth Magazine. Below
you will find articles from individual authors who have written for our
magazine. Our prayer for all who
receive read these articles is that the Lord "...may give to you the
Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the
knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may
know what is the hope of His calling, and what are the riches of the glory of
His inheritance in the saints” (Ephesians 1:17-18).
Father God's
Kingdom In Our Postmodern World
by A. Wilson Phillips
Jesus Christ of Nazareth
offended the Pharisees and chief priests when He told them:
…the kingdom of
God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of
it (Matt. 21:43).
The conflict between Jesus
and the religious leaders centered around their difference in the
interpretation of the Old Testament Scriptures concerning the kingdom of
God (Matt. 21:42-46).
Today, we who are born again
into the kingdom of God have the same problem that Jesus
faced—conflicting views of what the Scripture truly says.
Jesus and His apostles
interpreted the Old Testament Scriptures by the illumination of God’s
Holy Spirit, who speaks the mind of the Father (John 15:26; 16:13).
Therefore, Apostle Peter said, “…no prophecy of Scripture is of
any private interpretation” (2 Pet. 1:20). The Scriptures must
be interpreted with the Scriptures by the illumination of Father God’s
Holy Spirit.
Today, Father God’s concern
is that many spiritual leaders are not entering into the truth of His
kingdom and are hindering others who would enter in. These leaders are
like the Pharisees of Jesus’ day. They have failed to listen to the Holy
Spirit and have taken away the “key of knowledge” (Luke 11:52).
In our “information age” with
computers, satellites, television, and radio releasing knowledge in an
unprecedented manner, Father God is bypassing the “chief priests,
scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees” of our day who are not entering into
Father God’s kingdom. They refuse to come under the authority of His
Word, Spirit, and delegated authorities.
The knowledge of Father God’s
kingdom is spreading throughout planet earth. The knowledge of
Father’s kingdom is released through spoken words—words of spirit
and life (John 6:63).
Jesus Christ of Nazareth—our
Savior, Lord, God, King, and Brother—was the Man who was obedient to the
plan of r
edemption.
Father God reconciled all things in heaven and on earth to Himself
through the blood of “our Brother’s” cross (Col. 1:13-14, 19-20).
Today in our postmodern
world, we who are “in Christ” can live a kingdom life of righteousness,
peace, joy, and prosperity in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14:17).
Remember, “Whoever controls
the language controls the culture.” The best is yet to come.
A. Wilson Phillips is the co-founding and senior
pastor of Abundant Life Covenant
Church.
The
Pursuit Of Happiness
By Richard K. Clark
One of the most famous
phrases in U.S. history comes from Thomas Jefferson’s statement in
The Declaration of Independence that says:
We hold these
truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among
these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Thomas Jefferson’s words are
so familiar that many may put them on the same level as the Bible’s
inspired words. I appreciate Jefferson giving credit to our Creator, but
I’m not sure that our Creator would perfectly agree with some of Mr.
Jefferson’s implications. No real truth is merely “self-evident”—it
comes by divine revelation—and all men are not “created equal.” In fact,
I doubt that our Creator would agree that any of us have “rights” since
everything that we have comes through His mercy and grace.
More particularly let me
briefly address the idea of the pursuit of happiness. The Bible probably
doesn’t address the concept of “happiness” in its 21st-century
meaning, but the common biblical word “blessed” can be
interpreted as “happy.”
Our modern culture puts
happiness and the pursuit thereof as one of its greatest and highest
goals. We often hear it said, “All that matters is that he/she is
happy.” The January 17, 2005 issue of Time Magazine had numerous
articles dealing with the issue of happiness. The researchers considered
genetic programming and social, environmental, and even religious
conditioning as ingredients to determining happiness, but these don’t
quite hit the mark as to our Creator’s definition of true happiness.
Jesus was very clear as to
what constituted the pursuit of happiness, and all of the ingredients
were wrapped up in Him. We are to walk in faith and obedience to His
Word, enlightened and empowered by His Spirit. Since He has blessed us
with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ—which
includes being chosen before the world was formed, forgiven, cleansed
and redeemed by His blood, adopted, accepted, made holy, and made
co-heirs (Eph. 1)—I am sure our God would say we qualify to be happy
(the spiritual force and presence of joy).
You will show me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore (Ps. 16:11).
…for the
kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace
and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14:17).
But the fruit
of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is
no law (Gal. 5:22-23).
Happiness
and joy come from God, and it is our responsibility to cultivate them by
faith. We may not always “feel” happy, but the Word of God says that we
are to express the truth about ourselves in Christ. To rejoice
is to stir up the joy that resides within. Miraculously I can change my
“sad” or “mad” into “glad”!
Rejoice
in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!
(Phil.4:4)
Richard K. Clark is an associate pastor of Abundant Life Covenant Church.
Holy
Spirit As An Ally
By Benjamin Davis
Joy and peace are the
emotions of God. God’s passion is to grant these emotions to His
children through the person of the Holy Spirit. For this reason, He
sovereignly led the apostle Paul to write the following words:
…for the
kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and
peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14:17).
As I was sitting in our
Sunday morning church service, the Holy Spirit spoke these words into my
heart: “The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy with
Holy Spirit as your ally.” With those words in my heart, I began to
ponder the implications of having Holy Spirit as an ally.
Some people live
with the Holy Spirit as their enemy.
Scripture says,
In all their affliction He was afflicted,
And the Angel of His Presence saved them;
In His love and in His pity He redeemed them;
And He bore them and carried them
All the days of old.
But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit;
So He turned Himself against them as an enemy,
And He fought against them (Is. 63:9-10).
Too many believers
in Christ ignore (practically speaking) the person of the Holy Spirit.
Doctrinally, they acknowledge Him as
part of the trinity and necessary for salvation. Some go so far as to
trust Him to speak in tongues and practice the gifts of the Spirit.
However, when it comes to interpreting Scripture and living life, many
have come to depend more on their knowledge of ancient Greek, Hebrew,
historical context, and church tradition than the person of Holy Spirit.
While all of these things are good, we still need to follow the pattern
Son for interpreting Scripture. He said,
…My doctrine is
not Mine, but His who sent Me. If anyone wills to do His will, he shall
know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak
on My own authority (John 7:16-17).
God desires all who
are in Christ to come to depend on the person of the Holy Spirit as an
ally. As an ally, Holy Spirit is given
to believers in Christ to help them see and enter the
kingdom of God (John 3:3, 5). Holy Spirit leads us into submission to
Jesus, who is the reigning king and our elder brother (Rom. 8:29; Heb.
2:11).
Holy Spirit is also given as
a counselor who dwells with us and in us (John 14:16-17). A good image
to help us relate to Him as a counselor is that of a public hearing
where a high-profile person is being grilled. The individual will often
have an attorney sitting next to him/her, and before he/she answers any
question, the attorney leans over and whispers in the person’s ear. As
long as the person stays yielded to the attorney’s whispers, he/she says
only those things that will advance his/her cause in the hearing.
Similarly, as the believer in Christ stays sensitive to Holy Spirit’s
gentle whispers within, he/she will learn to speak words of spirit and
life that advance the kingdom of God.
Jesus demonstrated a
lifestyle with Holy Spirit as an ally. Scripture says,
…God
anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power,
who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the
devil, for God was with Him (Acts 10:38).
It is God’s passionate desire
to see Jesus’ younger brothers and sisters cultivate an intimate
relationship with the person of the Holy Spirit, to know Him as an ally
for practical living in the kingdom of God. Joy and peace are
by-products of knowing Him in this way.
Benjamin Davis is an associate pastor of Abundant Life Covenant Church
Taxation & Wealth Redistribution
by Jonathan Clark
I recently read a circulating
e-mail about taxation. The e-mail letter was written by a professor of
economics from the University of Georgia and was a satirical explanation
of how our tax system attempts to be “fair” while at the same time
proportionate to income earned. I won’t try to retell the amusing and
eye-opening story, although it did get me to thinking (which can be a
dangerous proposition).
Many Americans are unhappy
with the current tax system; and, the reality is, the American tax
system does not work and is often tyrannical. (Tyranny, by definition,
is when a citizen is taxed by the state, and the money is used for
purposes that go against that citizen’s values/morals.) However, one
of the main reasons that the system does not and cannot work in the long
run is because it tries to be like God’s financial system without
accountability.
Apostle Paul was explaining
God’s covenantal financial plan to the Corinthian church when he
explained:
For I do not
mean that others should be eased and you burdened; but by an equality,
that now at this time your abundance may supply their lack, that their
abundance also may supply your lack (possibly later)…As it is
written, “He who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who
gathered little had no lack” (2 Cor. 8:13-15).
An equitable
redistribution of the wealth/abundance works within the parameters of
committed and accountable relationships—otherwise, it gets into
robbery, usury, and tyranny. As a matter of fact, scriptural law on
tithing requires that 10 % of income goes to God; the American
government will often require much more than that!
Paying taxes is certainly
“taxing,” but the Son of God Himself was willing to “Render to Caesar
the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that
a
re
God’s” (Matt. 22:21). Jesus knew the unscriptural nature of tax
systems, yet He didn’t gripe and
complain about it. He knew that Father God would take care of Him—He
didn’t look to the state for security.
Therefore I
exhort…that…prayers…and giving of thanks be made for all men…and all who
are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life… (1
Tim. 2:1-2).
Jonathan Clark is an elder of Abundant Life Covenant Church and a physician in
Springfield, Missouri.
Emotional Learning Curve
By James Frater
Albert Einstein lived on a
pedestal in my mind as I was growing up. I still hold a wonder of the
miracles of God’s creation which Einstein described in his general and
special theories of relativity. Nevertheless, I gained a more balanced
picture of Einstein a few years ago when I viewed a documentary which
exposed the shameful way he treated his first wife. Although he found
success in science, he experienced failure in his relationships.
Several years ago, I read
Daniel Goleman’s book Emotional Intelligence. Goleman identifies
traits that most people would agree constitute true success in life, for
example, the ability to hold a steady job, maintain a long-term
marriage, make and keep friendships—some extremely practical criteria.
Goleman reports individuals with high IQ generally perform poorly with
regard to these success factors; so “successful” people must possess a
different kind of intelligence. Goleman calls this emotional
intelligence. He further coins the term emotional quotient,
or EQ, to denote how much emotional intelligence someone has.
One of my roles at work has
always been technical communicator. I have a knack for expressing
technical concepts in written communications. While I was a manager for
a few years, I was also recognized for “building bridges”—helping two
groups of people to understand each other. These successes made me think
I had a great EQ.
And yet, there had also been
many failures, such as miscommunication with my bosses and peers. In a
business unit of over 200 employees, I had established not a single
regular social or “best friend” relationship, in spite of copious prayer
and regular reaching out.
One day, Holy Spirit spoke
quietly to me: “An ability to recognize commonalities among two
parties is not the same as emotional intelligence, neither is
articulate, precise, effective technical writing.” I felt like the
emperor hearing the young child, “Hey! Look! The king is not wearing any
clothes!” The truth offended my pride, but the Spirit’s voice was quiet
and matter-of-fact. I humbled myself and accepted this truth. So I have
major gaps in my emotional intelligence—now what?
I lean on Holy Spirit and
listen for His voice more. I am slower to speak. “A man who has
friends must himself be friendly…” (Prov. 18:24). So I make a
conscious effort to sustain cheerfulness, smile, and socialize when it’s
not convenient. That’s right. I work in a software development shop
where there is continuous pressure to meet deadlines without sacrificing
quality—and Holy Spirit wants me to make it a priority to chat with
coworkers on a regular basis.
I thank Holy Spirit that it’s
His ministry to show me each day how to live. My hope is in the person
of God. Obedience to the Word of God with a submissive, humble attitude
will continue to raise my EQ.
James Frater is a programmer/analyst at
McKesson in Springfield, Missouri.
Good
Job
by Liz Dawes
…Behold, I
make all things new… (Rev. 21:5).
Reflecting on this scripture,
I see the importance of Jesus’ word and how it applies to me. God has a
specific plan for my life, and anything in me that is contrary to His
plan and purposes, He works out of me. He makes every area of my life
new—including my attitude in the workplace.
My work ethic was always a
mix of hard work and some rebellion. At the age of 15, I learned that
people would stand by and do nothing while I worked. Instead of seeing
their job as a calling, many spent their time “limping” through the week
to get to the weekend.
For many years I, like many
people I knew, complained about my employer and my work. My grumbling
became so common that it didn’t occur to me that God had provided the
job for me.
When an authority at work or
school would try to correct me, I would tell them what I thought. This
was the pattern I followed for 20 years. Then I met God’s authority, and
He put His thumb down on me. He spoke to my heart: “You are going to
stop acting this way, and this is why—the way you’re acting isn’t My
will for your life, and it’s time you acted differently. If you are
going to represent Me in the workplace, you can’t have an unthankful
attitude, and you must show respect to your authorities.”
…For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that
exist are appointed by God (Rom. 13:1).
The Lord was confronting me
about my deep rebellion.
Change has never been easy
for me, but I knew God wanted to change this area of my life. What did
that mean and how far would it go? I had no idea. But I knew He wanted
to work out of me my old nature, which was contrary to Him and wasn’t
what He had intended for me. This was hard for me to grasp. My attitude
and actions were one way, but Christ wanted me to be different.
First, I stopped complaining
about my job—it was God’s provision for me.
Second, I stopped talking
back to my boss, and I apologized when I spoke inappropriately. I knew I
could submit outwardly and still be resisting inwardly. Therefore, God
required that both my inward and outward attitude be right.
For these changes to take
place in me, I needed the Scriptures to renew my thoughts. I went back
to what Christ says about me.
…If anyone is a
new creation, old things have passed away; behold all things have become
new (2 Cor. 5:17).
The Holy Spirit continues to
make real to me that old things have passed away, and all
things have become new, including my attitude on the job.
I have been
crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in
me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the
Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me (Gal. 2:20).
The Lord gave me the ability
to separate myself from those old actions and thoughts and to think
differently about work and how I relate to people. However, my rebellion
was so ingrained that I had to work on this daily. For a while, I felt
like I was always apologizing for something. What I used to think was
acceptable the Holy Spirit wouldn’t let me get away with anymore. God
replaced my rebellion with appropriate ways to deal with confrontation,
and He taught me how to express myself rightly when an issue came up.
God’s power changed me from the person I was to a new creation.
The Lord released me from
those things that stole my peace. By changing my attitude at work, I
have been free to take a personal interest in what is going on in my
coworkers’ lives, and I have encouraged them and gave them support.
By revelation, I now know
that God empowers me for every job I do. For I am:
…His
workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared
beforehand… (Eph. 2:10).
I constantly remind myself of
what God says about me regardless of what others say or how they treat
me.
As my spiritual life goes so
goes my effectiveness at work. When my spiritual life wasn’t very deep,
that shallowness reflected in my work. As I took on the yoke of Christ,
I came under God’s authority and was more useful to God and effective at
work; the peace of God ruled in my heart, and I had less “issues” at
work.
As God continues to work in
my life, I am living up to my full potential in my workplace.
Liz Dawes is a training coordinator in
the business office at Cox Health in Springfield, Missouri.
Words Of Truth
By Dianna Gibson
On May 23, 2002, I lost my
mother after complications from her heart surgery. It was an
excruciating time. Mom was a hospice nurse and had made her final wishes
very clear to my Dad, my brother, and me. We knew, without any doubt,
what she wanted. After two weeks of fighting with her doctors regarding
withdrawing life support, she was allowed to die with dignity. The whole
ordeal—from her surgery to long after her death—was, without question,
the hardest thing I have ever experienced.
The next year, I became
pregnant and planned to give the baby up for adoption (that is a whole
other story which I wrote about in the October 2004 issue of Present
Truth). When I was only about three months pregnant, I met with my
attorney regarding the adoption. The meeting went well. He was very
supportive and encouraging. However, I kept hearing him say, “Once you
surrender your rights, you have ten days to change your mind.” I know he
did not say those words to me over and over again, but that is what I
kept hearing. “…You will have ten days to change your mind…” I did not
know why at the time, but this filled me with fear. After the meeting, I
barely made it to my car before I fell apart.
As I was driving home, I
began to understand what was going on. I was expecting the adoption
process to be like what I had gone through with my mother. I knew it was
the right thing to do for this baby. I was not going to change my mind.
However, was I setting myself up for the worst pain I had ever
experienced? This was my baby! How could I bear pain that would be worse
than losing my mom?
When I got home, I called my
sister-in-law Angie. Hysterically, I told her what was in my heart. Out
of her mouth came the most important words I heard throughout the
pregnancy: “Dianna, don’t look at this like what happened with your mom.
That was hell. This is a beautiful thing.” She said, “This was never
your child, Dianna. This is God’s child. You are doing what God has told
you to do with His child. He knows what is best for this baby… and this
is not your last chance to be a parent.” Those words were truth.
God spoke directly through Angie to my heart, and her words of truth
gave me peace. I changed my thinking about the adoption so that it lined
up with God’s thinking, and I had peace that has continued to this day.
After I had the baby, I fully
expected to experience the grief that comes with loss. Even though I
knew it was right and was God-orchestrated, and that God would be
faithful with my emotions, I expected to grieve. You’re supposed to,
right? So when I was not overcome by grief, and I was not thinking about
the baby every moment of every day, I began to feel guilt. I felt guilty
for not grieving.
My friend Leesa from church
came over one day, and I was showing her pictures of the baby and his
family. I showed her one very sweet picture that his parents had given
me to “help me through the grieving process,” and Leesa said, “Have you
grieved? Because I don’t believe you have to. If you know that something
is right, and you know that it is good and that it is the work of God….I
don’t believe you have to grieve. What is there to grieve?” Wow! That
truth freed me from the guilt of not grieving!
When we keep our hearts and
our ears open to hear the truth, God will be faithful to send it. And if
we will believe the truth—it will set us free!
And you shall
know the truth, and the truth shall make you free (John 3:32).
Dianna Gibson is a registered nurse in
the surgical ICU at St. John’s Hospital in Springfield, Missouri.
Freedom
To Live Like Jesus
By Cassandra Walker
After hearing a discussion on
talk radio about the gay rights issue, I thought again how important it
is to seek God’s perspective on such matters.
During my lifetime, I have
not been distanced from people living a homosexual lifestyle. As a
teenager, I had multiple gay friends whom I spent time with and even,
before I had an intimate relationship with God, went to gay hangouts
with them. Some of those friends have since passed away due to AIDS or
are HIV positive. Currently, my husband and I have a dear friend in the
St. Louis area who has struggled with a homosexual lifestyle his whole
life. He doesn’t want to live that way, but at the same time, he doesn’t
want to give it up.
Over the years, God has
shaped my convictions on this topic, and I believe God has shown me in
His Word that to engage in a homosexual lifestyle is not what He
intended for men or women to do. The following Scriptures are my basis
for those convictions, in addition to the Genesis 19 passage telling of
the wrath on the city of Sodom.
You shall not
lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination (Lev. 18:22).
For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their
women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise
also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust
for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving
in themselves the penalty of their error which was due (Rom.
1:26-27).
As a result of my conviction
that the Word of God specifically points to homosexuality as immoral, I
do not see whether or not gay couples should have governmentally
recognized marriages as a civil rights issue. To say that it is a civil
rights issue, I think, puts it on the same par as the civil rights
struggles of the African Americans.
The difference is this: I can
go to the Word of God and see Scriptures that clearly show that African
Americans should not be denied the same benefits as other Americans.
Therefore, I see that as a legitimate civil rights issue. To my
knowledge, I cannot go to the Word of God and find a scripture that
would give me peace to grant gay couples the same benefits. African
Americans have endured undue hardships, and the civil rights movement
has been a tool that I believe God has used to move things in the right
direction over the years as a whole. I believe it is wrong for the gay
community to jump on the “civil rights band wagon” concerning government
recognition of gay marriage because I believe the Word of God says it is
immoral. It is not immoral to be African American. To me, it is like
comparing apples with oranges.
Whether or not this country’s
government should accept gay marriage is not a civil issue. It is a
moral issue. I don’t want my government to accept anything that can’t be
backed up by the Word of God.
In a society where political
correctness is often valued over spiritual correctness, those of us who
have the Spirit of truth within must speak the truth in love and free
those who are in bondage to sin.
Cassandra Walker and her husband Gavin
own MedTech Medical Management Systems in Springfield, Missouri.
Obedience
To Light Dispels Darkness
By Byron Hamilton
We truly don’t know how
really dark a place is until the light is turned on; then we see the
things that we did not know were there.
In the Sermon on the Mount,
Jesus instructed his disciples about light and darkness:
The lamp of the
body is the eye. Therefore, when your eye is good, your whole body also
is full of light. But when your eye is bad, your body also is full of
darkness. Therefore take heed that the light which is in you is not
darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark,
the whole body will be full of light, as when the bright shining of a
lamp gives you light (Luke 11:34-36).
That verse used to be an
enigma to me. I understood what Jesus was basically stating, but why was
he talking about good and bad eyes? So I asked the Holy Spirit (the
Teacher) to instruct me.
Jesus grew up in a
multi-lingual culture. Hebrew was the language of education; Greek, the
language of commerce; Latin, the language of politics; and Aramaic, the
language of the masses. Each language carried its own set of rules; each
word its own variation of meanings and mores. In the verbal concoction
that ensued, it was not unusual for word meaning to carry over from one
language to another. And so it was with the word eye.
In Hebrew, “eye” can have the
connotation of “source or flow coming from deep within.” Thus, when
“eye” (Hebrew: ‘ayin) is used in the following verse: “Behold,
here I stand by the well (‘ayin—eye) of water, and the daughters
of the men of the city are coming out to draw water” (Gen. 24:13),
it has been appropriately translated as “well” in the English
language. This occurs ten times in the Hebrew Scriptures. Similarly, the
Hebrew word ‘ayin (eye) has also been translated as “spring”
in such verses as: “Now the Angel of the
Lord found her by a spring
(‘ayin) of water in the wilderness, by the spring (‘ayin) on
the way to Shur” (Gen. 16:7). ‘Ayin has been translated as
“spring” eleven times in the Old Testament.
When Jesus spoke about the
“eye” being the lamp of the body, the Greek translation used here does
not pick up the Hebrew variation of meaning—source or flow coming
from deep within. With this understanding, “eye” takes on a
whole new meaning. It becomes obvious that Jesus is not referring to the
physical “eye,” rather man’s inner reservoir, or soul, as
the source of either light or darkness to the body. It has been said
that we are only responsible for the light that we have. As we respond
in obedience to the light (God’s direction and understanding), we are
given more light to walk in.
Jesus states that the
converse is also true: “take heed that the light which is in you is
not darkness.” When I do not respond in obedience to the light God
is giving me, the light becomes darkness to me. Pride or fear gives rise
to disobedience; disobedience gives rise to deception, and deception
breeds rebellion. The light I think I have is actually darkness which
will lead me into more deceptive disobedience.
Because Light dispels
darkness, when I repent I open up the shades to receive the warmth and
brilliance of God’s perpetual, cleansing light.
Byron and his wife Leesa own Med-Soft
National Training Institute in Springfield, Missouri.
Time To Get Serious?
By A. Wilson Phillips
Donna Bryson, an Associated
Press correspondent in Cairo, Egypt, posted this headline in the
Springfield News-Leader on November 2, 2004 (the day of the United
States presidential election): “Bin Laden Pledges to Bankrupt the U.S.”
She wrote:
Osama bin Laden
vowed to bleed America to bankruptcy, according to a full transcript of
unaired portions of a videotape released Monday by an Arab television
station. The terror mastermind whose al-Qaida network carried out the
Sept. 11, 2001 attacks credited the religiously inspired Arab volunteers
that he fought with against the Soviets in Afghanistan with having bled
Russia for 10 years, until it went bankrupt and was forced to withdraw
in defeat. He suggested the same strategy would work against the United
States.
I’m concerned about the term
“United States.” Are we united, or is the enemy using the tactic of
“divide and conqueror” in an attempt to defeat us?
In our fight against
terrorists, America’s enemies perhaps have seen something that our
politicians are ignoring or are blinded to. It’s called the law of
agreement by being one voice (Gen. 11:6).
The pollsters post the
negativism 24/7 in our websites and media. Our enemies’ intelligence
knows the first amendment rights better than the average American. They
seem to be more unified and trust their intelligence information. Why
can we not trust our intelligence like our enemies do?
The greediness in partisan
politics causes disunity and confusion and is one of America’s greatest
weaknesses.
Drunk on their own egos, some
constitutional purists cross the line in their criticism of the “Patriot
Act.” God’s covenant people do not need to live in distrust and fear. A
divinely inspired proverb says, “He who walks with integrity walks
securely…The integrity of the upright will guide them” (Prov. 10:9,
11:3).
Positive people are trusting
people. Negative thinkers are non-trusting. Distrust is understandable
in politics. However, it’s unacceptable in Father God’s kingdom.
Sectarian Christianity makes
America weak even more so than partisan politics. Why? Because spiritual
power supersedes political power when properly understood and applied.
The kingdom of God is where the spiritual law of agreement supersedes
the natural political law of agreement.
God’s Word tells us:
…if two of you
agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for
them by My Father in heaven (Matt. 18:19).
We must agree with our Father
through His Word, then with another believer in Christ. The power of God
is released in its simplicity.
The American political
cultural Christianity must get serious. You can be assured that Osama
bin Laden and his followers are.
It's Suppertime
By Paul Gabbert
From His great mercy and His grace,
God sent his Son to take our place;
He shed His blood to make things right;
We may now partake from his “tree of life.”
And to make things better still,
From His “living waters” we may drink our fill;
In us and with us His Holy Spirit resides,
Empowering us to be Christ’s bride.
The marriage supper has been prepared;
As His bride, we all may share;
Spiritual nourishment to meet our every need
When from his Spirit and Word we continually feed.
His plan and purpose for all to see,
Our overcoming lives—a faithful witness to the nations;
His “New Jerusalem” in communion with Christ.
Paul Gabbert
currently runs R & P Cleaning Service.
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