NTKN: America must regain its reliance on God

Good Morning,

I trust you all had an enjoyable Thanksgiving. and while I wanted us to all take a few days off, I realized that something must be said and done – asap. Stay with me here…..

“The leader of a nation can make a big difference”writes Jonathan Cahn, author of The Harbinger.  “When you look at Israel, when you had an immoral king, it led the nation into immorality. When you had a righteous king, it led the nation into revival. It’s not dependent just on the leader. But what the president does, what the Congress does – the laws affect everyone. It affects the preaching of the Gospel, the teaching of the young and the next generation – all of this. What just happened is significant. America made a choice. It was a sign of a turn against the ways of God.”

Did you know that in 1789, newly inaugurated President George Washington gave a prophetic warning at Federal Hall in New York City. He declared that America’s prosperity and protection were dependent upon its adherence to God. Later, the political leaders of the young nation gathered at St. Paul’s Chapel to commit the nation’s future to God’s purposes. That chapel is located at Ground Zero and miraculously survived 9/11 virtually unscathed.

“Before God judges a nation, He sends warning,” explains Cahn. “He sent warning to ancient Israel. He even allowed its enemies to breach its borders in a devastating strike that would traumatize the nation. It was a wake-up call, the call to return to God. But the nation responded with defiance.

Now America is the nation in rapid departure from God’s will. And God likewise allowed an enemy to breach its borders in a devastating strike – the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Next up – the ‘perfect storm’ aka Sandy. It was, likewise, a wake-up call. But America, like Israel, has not responded with repentance, but with defiance.

God, speaking through Isaiah explains what will happen as a result of pride and arrogance.

WHEN will we learn?

Breitbart reports this morning that Obama’s Thanksgiving message eschewed any direct reference to thanking God, making this the fourth straight year in which the President of the United States has ignored the central message of the holiday in favor of political grandstanding.

This year, Obama’s central message was that now that he’s been re-elected, Americans should agree with all of his policies. His unity routine sounds strangely empty after a campaign in which he focused on dividing Americans:

But most of all, it’s a time to give thanks for each other, and for the incredible bounty we enjoy.

That’s especially important this year.  As a nation, we’ve just emerged from a campaign season that was passionate, noisy, and vital to our democracy.  But it also required us to make choices – and sometimes those choices led us to focus on what sets us apart instead of what ties us together; on what candidate we support instead of what country we belong to ….

We’re also grateful that this country has always been home to Americans who see these blessings not simply as gifts to enjoy, but as opportunities to give back.  Americans who believe we have a responsibility to look out for those less fortunate – to pull each other up and move forward together.

How are we supposed to move forward together, you ask? Why, with greater government spending, of course!

 

WHEN will we learn?

 

Zerohedge accurately reports that our financial system is broken. Our political system is broken. Oligarchs and their cronies reap easy rewards — bailouts, crony capitalism, corporate handouts, liquidity injections, favourable “regulation” (that puts oligarchs’ competition out of a business) — while taxpayers pay the bill.

But no such thing lasts forever.

Thanksgiving is very much the day of the black swan. Nassim Taleb used the example of a turkey fattened up for Thanksgiving as an example of a black swan phenomenon. The turkey sees itself being fed every day by the turkey farmer and assumes based on past behaviour that this will continued indefinitely until the day comes when the farmer kills the turkey. Nothing in the turkey’s limited experiential dataset suggested such an event.

But Thanksgiving also commemorates the end of pre-Columbian America, a huge earth-shattering black swan for the people of the Americas. the day before the first European immigrants landed in North America, very little in the Native Americans’ dataset suggested what was to come.

In a globalised and hyper-connected world, drastic systemic change can occur faster than ever before.

All it takes is the first spark.

 

WHEN will we learn?

 

 

 

 

 

Greg Swank wrote: Over the years, I have shared in debates and discussions regarding the current state of affairs in the U.S., and the changing social climate of this great nation. Since the “baby-boomer” generation, society and its culture have become noticeably different than the way it was 50 years ago. From the late 50’s to the 70’s a series of events took place contributing to the way we are currently living. However, like anything else, there has to be a starting point at which the wheels are put into motion. Sometimes it can be a single event, such as war, but more often, it is a series of events, some intentional, some planned, others unpredictable. There is always a pivotal point when things begin to change. I believe that time was 1963.

 

For my generation, some of the following will certainly stir old memories. If you born later, this may serve as a brief history lesson into the times your parents traveled through.

 

By 1963 television was the leading sources of entertainment. The public enjoyed a different type of programming back then. Lessons on life could be viewed weekly on “Leave it to Beaver” or “My Three Sons.” There were hero’s back then that never drew blood, “The Lone Ranger” and “The Adventures of Superman.” Cartoon series evolved, such as, “The Flintstones” and “The Jetsons” without messages of empowering the children, using vulgarities or demeaning parental guidance. Family’s could spend a weekend evening watching “Ed Sullivan,” “Bonanza” or “Gunsmoke.” For those who enjoyed thrill and suspense, we were blessed with “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” and the “Twilight Zone.” ‘My Favorite Martian,” “Ozzie and Harriet,” “Donna Reed” and “Sea Hunt” also kept viewers entertained weekly.

 

Movie theaters were not multiplex units with 15 screens, rather, one single, giant big screen with adequate sound and hard seats without springs. “Tom Jones” had won the Academy award for best picture. “How The West Was Won,” “Cleopatra,” “Lily of the Fields,” “The Great Escape,” “The Birds,” and “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” were all box office hits.

 

By years end, “The Beatles” had played for the British Royal Family and were laying the groundwork to conquer the U.S. the following year. Eric Clapton began his journey to fame with Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Jim McCarty and their band, “The Yardbirds.” Out on the west coast the surf was beginning to rock’n’roll with “The Beach Boys” and their first song to reach the top ten list, “Surfin’ U.S.A.”

 

“Joys of Jell-O” recipes for quivering florescent foodstuff hit the stores. U.S. Postal rates went up to five cents for the first ounce. AT&T introduced touch-tone telephones. The Yankees played in the World Series again; but lost to the Dodgers in four straight. The government and NASA began the Apollo program.

 

This is just a brief snapshot of some things that were going on back in 1963. Remember?

 

While some of these events played an important role in the direction of change that affect us today, many of them were lost to much greater, more political events, that I believe put everything into motion.

 

On January 10, 1963, the House of Representative and later the Senate began reviewing a document entitled “Communist Goals for Taking Over America.” It contained an agenda of 45 separate issues that, in hindsight was quite shocking back then and equally shocking today. Here, in part, are some key points listed in that document.

 

4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.

 

5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.

 

8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states.

 

11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind.

 

13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.

 

16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.

 

23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. “Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art.”

 

24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them “censorship” and a violation of free speech and free press.

 

25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.

 

26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as “normal, natural, healthy.”

 

27. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity, which does not need a “religious crutch.”

 

28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of “separation of church and state.”

 

40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.

 

44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.

 

You can see the entire list on this web page – http://www.truthtrek.net/politics/takeover.htm

 

Now, I am not saying that the U.S. is under some kind of Communist control, but what I do find frightening, is of the 45 issues listed, nearly all of them have come to pass. Remember this was in January 1963.

 

In 1963 the news media showed women burning their bras as the women’s liberation movement took off with the publishing of “The Feminine Mystique” by Betty Friedan. Martin Luther King was jailed in April and civil unrest was being brought to the forefront. On August 28th the media brought us live coverage of the march on Washington and Dr. Kings famous “I had a dream” speech. The Cuban missile crisis found its way in to our homes and our nation was gearing up for conflict.

 

By September of 1963 we had lost some very influential people, Pope John XXIII, Robert Frost, and country legend Patsy Cline, to name a few. In the early hours of November 22nd we learned of the quiet passing of C.S. Lewis and hours later we were brought to our knees when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated and our nation mourned.

 

So you see, while long since forgotten, 1963 could very well have been, one of the most important years since our founding fathers provided us with the Constitution of the United States. Which brings me to one final and extremely important decision that was made during this most provocative year.

 

On June 17, 1963 the U.S. Supreme Court concluded that any Bible reciting or prayer, in public schools, was deemed unconstitutional.

 

While American’s have endured great prosperity over the past 40 years we have also lost our moral compass and direction. In reviewing the research, data supports 1963 as a focal point, demonstrating a downward slope in our moral and social decline through 2001.

 

Certainly, one would have to agree that all of these events have had a profound impact on the way our current social structure has been changed. Personally, if I had to choose one specific event that has demonstrated the demoralization of our country, it would have to be the decision of the U.S Supreme Court in June of 1963.

 

But there is always “hope.”

 

 

Ahh, hope.

Friends, Patriots, I tell you this –  Today we must carry on a new struggle for the country we love. We must push hard against an age that is pushing hard against us. If we have full employment and greater economic growth-if we have cities of gold and alabaster-but our children have not learned to walk in goodness, justice and mercy, then the American experiment, no matter how gilded, will have failed.

Do not surrender. Get mad. Get in the fight
How can we turn this nation back to God? Can it even be done? Yes!  We can make a difference!

II Chron. 7:14 
“If my people which are called by my name will humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from Heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”    Mark Beaird breaks it down this way…

I. IF MY PEOPLE WHICH ARE CALLED BY MY NAME…

A. There can be no “finger-pointing” when returning to God. He’s talking to us.

B. Judgment always begins at the House of God.

II. …WILL HUMBLE THEMSELVES AND PRAY AND SEEK MY FACE…

A. It is good to be a proud American as long as we can bow to God.

B. Prayer is never obsolete, outdated or too late.

III. …AND TURN FROM THEIR WICKED WAYS…

A. We are notorious for repenting but not turning.
Repentance means to turn.

B. Do we love evil too much to turn from it?

IV. …THEN I (GOD) WILL HEAR FROM HEAVEN...

A. God is waiting to hear from us.

B. God longs for America to return to Him.

V. …AND WILL FORGIVE THEIR SIN AND HEAL THEIR LAND…

A. Forgiveness awaits all who will turn.

B. Healing awaits all who turn.

Can America return to God? If America wants to – YES. Do we want to?

CONCLUSION

God has given us a great blessing in our country. It is a blessing worth preserving through prayer and devotion to God in the face of those who would want to tear it down. Unless we serve God we will live in bondage.

Christianity and patriotism have much in common. It is significant to note that:

Our patriotic hymn “My County, ’Tis of Thee”, was written by a Baptist clergyman, Samuel Francis Smith.
The Pledge of Allegiance to the flag was written in 1892 by a Baptist minister, Francis Bellamy.
The words, “In God We Trust,” carried on all of our coins, are traced to the efforts of the Rev. W.R. Watkinson of Ridleyville, Pennsylvania.  His letter of concern, addressed to the Hon. S.P. Chase, was dated November 13, 1861. Seven days later Mr. Chase wrote to James Pollock, Director of the U.S. Mint as follows:
“No nation can be strong except in the strength of God, or safe except in His defense. The trust of our people in God should be declared on our national coins. Will you cause a device to be prepared without delay with a motto expressing in the finest and tersest words possible, this national recognition.”

America must regain its reliance on God – period.

Enjoy your weekend,

Lisa