STATEMENT AT A FOOTBALL GAME

It was a usual high school football game at Roane County High School, Kingston, Tennessee. Just before the game, School Principal Jody McLoud stepped to the PA and read this statement:

It has always been the custom at Roane County High School football games, to say a prayer and play the National Anthem, to honor God and Country.
Due to a recent ruling by the Supreme Court, I am told that saying a Prayer is a violation of Federal Case Law. As I understand the law at this time, I can use this public facility to approve of sexual perversion and call it "an alternate lifestyle," and if someone is offended, that's OK.
I can use it to condone sexual promiscuity, by dispensing condoms and calling it, "safe sex." If someone is offended, that's OK.
I can even use this public facility to present the merits of killing an unborn baby as a "viable means of birth control." If someone is offended, no problem.
I can designate a school day as "Earth Day" and involve students in activities to worship religiously and praise the goddess "Mother Earth" and call it "ecology."
I can use literature, videos and presentations in the classroom that depict people with strong, traditional Christian convictions as "simple minded" and "ignorant" and call it "enlightenment."
However, if anyone uses this facility to honor God and to ask Him to bless this event with safety and good sportsmanship, then Federal Case Law is violated.
This appears to be inconsistent at best, and at worst, diabolical. Apparently, we are to be tolerant of everything and anyone, except God and His Commandments.
Nevertheless, as a school principal, I frequently ask staff and students to abide by rules with which they do not necessarily agree. For me to do otherwise would be inconsistent at best, and at worst, hypocritical. I suffer from that affliction enough unintentionally. I certainly do not need to add an intentional transgression.
For this reason, I shall "Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's," and refrain from praying at this time.
However, if you feel inspired to honor, praise and thank God and ask Him, in the name of Jesus, to bless this event, please feel free to do so. As far as I know, that's not against the law yet.

One by one, the people in the stands bow ed their heads, held hands with one another and began to pray.
They prayed in the stands. They prayed in the team huddles. They prayed at the concession stand and they prayed in the Announcer's Box!
The only place they didn't pray was in the Supreme Court of the United States of America - the Seat of "Justice" in the "one nation under God."
Somehow, Kingston, Tennessee remembered what so many have forgotten. We are given the Freedom OF Religion, not the Freedom FROM Religion. Praise God that His remnant remains!

via e-mail message

No Bitterness

I recently visited an uncle whom I had not seen for several years. During this visit I noticed that, while we were gathered at the table and my uncle bowed in prayer, he would grow very quiet as he spoke, and with tearful eyes would thank the Lord so sweetly for every little blessing, every single privilege that he had.

Was he thankful because he had great affluence, health, or because everything was going smoothly? No. This man, quivering weakly from his painful, terminal cancer, was thanking the Lord for the blessings that were entrusted to him for a time; instead of being bitter with the pains that reminded him of what he had lost.

I marveled at how he had been blessed with such peace and thankfulness though his pain was intense and how he was looking forward to heaven without fear, without anger and without bitterness. In the absence of bitterness, our Father can turn our weakness into His strength for His glory; and can make us a great blessing to others in our pain.

J. Shoemaker



THINK ABOUT THIS

According to an old saying, when the soldiers of Israel saw Goliath, they thought, He is so big that we can never kill him. When David saw Goliath, he though, He is so big that I cannot miss him.

For Such a Time As This

In his brilliant article on the doctrine of interposition Dr. John Eidsmoe concludes with the following call to action:

During the American War for Independence, America's clergy led the way for their people to become involved. In Boston the Father of the American Revolution, Sam Adams, proclaimed independence, and he was echoed by the Black Regiment, the black-robed New England clergy who preached independence in pulpits throughout New England. Throughout the colonies, clergy of many faiths called upon their parishioners to answer their country's call.

Today Alabama faces a constitutional crisis of similar proportions: Are we subject to the higher Law of God? Or is law simply what the government says it is? Are human rights unalienable because they are the gift of our Creator, or are they simply negotiable privileges that government can give or take away at will?

Is Chief Justice Moore's battle for the Ten Commandments a lost cause? There is no such thing as a lost cause until the last chapter of history has been written. Various new legal moves are underway, and the Spirit of God is at work. But regardless of the outcome of this case, we must take a stand for what is right. A century from now, as Americans seek to put the pieces together and rediscover the moral foundation of law, they will remember what we did in Montgomery in that hot summer of 2003. And as my wife reminds me, God will remember even if no one else does. And in the evening of your life, when your grandchildren ask what you did during the constitutional crisis over the Ten Commandments, what will you tell them?

For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? Esther 4:14

The Doctrine of Interposition, August 27, 2003 (visionforum.org)

There was a time, not too many years ago, when the focus in the lives of Christians was on the worship and work of God. Commitments beyond work and family were centered on making the gospel go forward in the community. Anything that interfered with those commitments was laid aside for the
greater work.
In these more urbane days, other worthy causes and associations have gained the ascendancy in the lives of church people, so that often there is little or no response to scheduled outreach activities or programs of the church. Everyone is so busy with all the other involvements that the Lord's work has been moved not just to a lower priority but has often been completely displaced because of lack of time or fatigue.
In this way these folk are sapping the Church of its vitality, and sending the message that the day of the church as an active, growing, viable force in the community is over.
What kind of message am I sending to my church? Am I voting for closure, or working for growth?
Copyright 2003. Used by permission

A man was sleeping at night in his cabin when suddenly his room filled with light and the Savior appeared. The Lord told the man he had work for him to do, and showed him a large rock in front of his cabin. The Lord explained that the man was to push against the rock with all his might. This the man did, day after day.
For many years he toiled from sun up to sun down, his shoulders set squarely against the cold, massive surface of the unmoving rock, pushing with all his might. Each night the man returned to his cabin sore, and worn out, feeling that his whole day had been spent in vain.
Seeing that the man was showing signs of discouragement, the Adversary decided to enter the picture by placing thoughts into the man's weary mind: "You have been pushing against that rock for a long time, and it hasn't budged. Why kill yourself over this? You are never going to move it. "
Thus giving the man the impression that the task was impossible and that he was a failure, these thoughts discouraged and disheartened the man.
"Why kill myself over this?" he thought. "I'll just put in my time, giving just the minimum effort and that will be good enough." And that is what he planned to do until one day he decided to make it a matter of prayer and take his troubled thoughts to the Lord. "Lord" he said, "I have labored long and hard in your service, putting all my strength to do that which you have asked. Yet, after all this time, I have not even budged that rock by half a millimeter. What is wrong? Why am I failing?"
The Lord responded compassionately, "My friend, when I asked you to serve me and you accepted, I told you that your task was to push against the rock with all your strength, which you have done. Never once did I mention to you that I expected you to move it. Your task was to push. And now you come to me, with your strength spent, thinking that you have failed. But, is that really so? Look at yourself. Your arms are strong and muscled, your back sinew and brown, your hands are callused from constant pressure, and your legs have become massive and hard. Through opposition you have grown much and your abilities now surpass that which you used to have. Yet you haven't moved the rock. But your calling was to be obedient and to push and to exercise your faith and trust in My wisdom. This you have done. I, my friend, will now move the rock."
At times, when we hear a word from God, we tend to use our own intellect to decipher what He wants, when actually what God wants is just simple obedience and faith in Him.... By all means, exercise the faith that moves mountains, but know that it is still God who moves the mountains.
-Author Unknown-