"Just did what I knew I had to do"

This weeks Quote:

"America was born a Christian Nation, America was born to exemplify that devotion to the elements of righteousness which are derived from revelations of Holy Scripture." - - - - President Woodrow Wilson.

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First From Julie's Keyboard:

How difficult it can be to get a good report any more. When we turn on our communication devices and monitor their output, it's just too often of a negative nature. Many just determine to shut it off. It can get depressive if one continues to feed upon the ills of our society and the reporting of things that make "the news."
In spite of this, there are many "good things" going on in this world around us. If we could only hear of these, how encouraging this would be.

Here's a thought however, if we can't get good news from our TVs and Radios, there's another alternative. We only have to look within if we are a believer in Christ. Praise be to God, He is "The Good News!" This is not spewing some Pentecostal hype. This is Truth that comes from God's Holy Word.

In Romans 2:4 we find that it's the ...."goodness of God that leads to repentance." What is this "goodness of God?" This "goodness" comes in when we realize that though all have sinned and fallen short of God's glory, He's made a way of justification. That comes through grace in the redemption that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
He's made us free indeed! Good News (Gospel) is awesome news when you think upon just what has been provided for us.

Who needs depression and the blues? What would we hope to gain by sitting around fretting over every thing that this old world and its policies is headed for? The choices that have been made in this world which have led to such turmoil as we see in these times are indeed a shame. It didn't happen overnight. The scaling down of moral values and craftiness of our enemy to take advantage of this behavior, is producing the reflection of the image we have created with our own options.

But enough about that! Why aren't we acting like we know, and are sharing the "Good News (Gospel)?" The believer is not to live as he is of this world. The Bible tells us that we are in this world, yet not of it. Our spiritual kingdom is more real than any dimension of living that we are experiencing while our feet are treading upon this earthen soil.

This phase of living will come to a close. Regardless of how we interpret this to occur, we all know there will be a heavenly kingdom for the believer in Christ. The goings on of this day and time are only fulfillments to former prophecy given. Nothing has caught our Heavenly Father by surprise. He's seen it all. We must rest in this and fully trust Him.

He's given us the provision for every thing needful to do just this, trust Him. Lean on and rely upon His finished work. We simply live and conduct ourselves as those who know the Truth that has set us free. We must be about His business sharing the "Good News (Gospel)" that makes men free.

When Mary left the tomb upon discovering that her Lord was no longer there, what did she do? She went to the others and shared the "Good News (Gospel)." He was no longer there. He had risen just as He said He would? His Word. His "Good News (Gospel)," is an anchor for the soul.

In the midst of persecutions and trials, stir up the "Good News (Gospel)" among ourselves. When this joy is stirred within our hearts, we'll not live as victims of this life any longer, but VICTORS! Glory Be to God!

Have a super blessed week,
Julie

Scripture References:

Mark 16:15 "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature."

Romans 2:4 "Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?"

John 20:18 Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things unto her."

II Corinthians 4:1-7 "Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not; But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man;s conscience in the sight of God. But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us."

John 17:13-18 "And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world."

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"Just did what I knew I had to do"

What do I want to blog about this 4th of July? I like to call it Independence Day lest we forget. I write a lot of things on here, I hope some of it worth reading. But I especially don’t want to waist anyone’s time on this day.

Today, the 3rd of July, we went into town, as we drove over they were celebrating the 4th on the radio at a concert somewhere with the troops. As the artist sang his patriotic songs about God and Country my eye’s began to tear.

It was moving, but it seemed they were singing about an America that use to be and that saddened me.

On the way back the program had change to the regular Christian talk radio. They were discussing the new legislation promoting homosexuality. What may be in store for us a few months down the road in our schools and public places. Cross dressers and transvestites accessing public rest rooms. Men who are in the process of changing from men into women occupying the women’s restrooms and vise versa. America truly has changed and is changing.

I guess what I want to post is a short story that happened to me this week at work. I was at a customers house, in making conversation some of the health problems he was experiencing came up. He mentioned having been in the V. A. hospital. I asked if he was a veteran to which he replied he was.

“Which war” I asked. He replied, “Korea, I was a POW”

He told me he was setting up a relay station when the enemy came in. There were some South Korean troops with him but they left him there and he was captured by the North Koreans. He said they must have thought he new something for they beat him severely, breaking both arms and both legs.

He said he pray for the Lord to let him die and go on, but the Lord told him he would make it and be ok. After they became convinced he didn’t know anything, they confined him with some other prisoners and set wooden splints on his legs and arms. Forty six days later he would escape as they were moving them to another location.

I felt it so inadequate to just say, “thank you” to one who had given so much, but I new, at least for me I needed to. After I thanked him he just turned his head for a moment then looked back at me and said, “No need , I just did what I new I had to do.”

It seems so many of us today think someone owes us something, then we come across someone to whom we owe so much and he replies, “No need, I just did what I new I had to do.” Something to think about this Independence Day!

May God bless each of you,
David

"Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are people who want crops without ploughing the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning; they want the ocean without the roar of its many waters. The struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, or it may be both. But it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand; it never has and it never will." – Frederick Douglass

"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it." - Thomas Paine

"A right is not what someone gives you; it's what no one can take from you." – Ramsey Clark

"You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man's freedom. You can only be free if I am free." - Clarence Darrow [That is, even if you don't like what your neighbor believes in, it's still vital to protect his freedom.]

"So long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men." - Voltaire

"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." - Wendell Phillips

"Freedom is never an achieved state; like electricity, we've got to keep generating it or the lights go out." - Wayne LaPierre

"If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too." - Somerset Maugham

"The land of the free will cease to be when it's no longer the home of the brave."- Rick Gaber

"A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor and bread it has earned -- this is the sum of good government." – Thomas Jefferson

"If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen." – Samuel Adams

"Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value." - Thomas Paine

"Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." - Galatians 5:1

"If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." – John 8:36

The first and last stanza’s of our National Anthem.

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?

Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?

And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.

Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!

Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

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Chambers:

"It is the sick man who knows what health is. The child of God is not conscious of the will of God because he is the will of God. - - - - Oswald Chambers. Written between the years 1911 & 1917. My Utmost for His Highest.