Reclaiming our Christian Heritage

     The school bus is rolling again, and the parking lot at the high school is full before 8:30 each morning.  Classes have begun.  Even though the heat hasn’t let up much, summer vacation is over. The kids are back in school, but what are they learning?  I am more concerned than ever about what we are teaching our children.  I for one would never have believed we would live to see that day when we would see our history re-written in order to support biased belief systems.  That’s right, you read it correctly, and this is no conspiracy theory.  It has actually been a concerted effort to distort the truth about the undeniably Christian roots of our nation, and her founding fathers.  
Do you realize the first English Bible printed in America was printed by the U.S. Congress in 1782? The records state that this Bible was an edition of the Holy Scripture for the use of our schools! If you think that’s surprising, note that on the inside of the cover it was printed that this edition of the Bible was recommended by Congress to the inhabitants of the United States! Hey, it’s been a long time now since I was in school, but we certainly never heard anything like that! I attended high school in the 70’s, graduating in 1975, and by that time we were hearing plenty about the separation of church and state, and surely our government would never be guilty of such blatant support of religion, as to both print and promote and addition of the Bible authorized by Congress! Now we are told that they don’t want any kind of religion in schools, and certainly no prayer in our public schools, not even before our football games.
 
      Did you know that in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol building there are four paintings commissioned by Congress in 1830 to represent the Christian History of the United States? The paintings span a hundred and twenty eight years, from Columbus in 1492 to the Pilgrims in 1620. They depict prayer meetings, a baptism, and bible study. Our heritage has an undeniably biblical, Christian foundation.  

     Have you heard contemporary educators claim that our founding fathers were more deist, than Christian? Often they select Thomas Jefferson as one of their primary examples, with claims that he was the least Christian of all. Perhaps then you will find it most interesting then that Thomas Jefferson was responsible for turning the Capital building into a church on Sundays, and during his eight years as President he attended church in the Capitol. Church services in the Capitol continued for next hundred years, and by 1857 there were over 2000 people in attendance in these worship services.  

     No one has done more exhaustive work to restore our historical foundation than David Barton, the Founder and President of Wall Builders, which is a national organization dedicated to presenting our forgotten history and its heroes. We can join our voices with Mr. Barton and others demanding that we teach the whole truth in our schools.  Now is the time for us to come together reclaiming our Christian heritage.
 
Mr. Barton has several great resources available, including America's Godly Heritage, a hour long DVD presentation of these truths, and The American Heritage Series, a collection of ten DVD's with 26 sessions filled with awesome insights from our history.

Little Flowers Never Worry!

It's pouring rain outside, but just before the deluge, the wind began to blow and outside the front window of our house is this large blossom pictured at the left.  Notice the different positions of the flower as it is tossed in the wind.  It was tossed left and right, and back again, several times, and when the rain began pouring down it bowed very low.  I remember some lines from and old song that reads like this: 

Little flowers never worry, when the wind begins to blow, 
and they never never cry, when the rain begins to fall.

After a couple additional stanzas the song continues with these words:

Oh I guess they've learned the secret; They don't fret because they know, If it never, never rained, then they'd never, never grow.

Perhaps it feels like the storm clouds have gathered in your life today.  Maybe the winds are blowing, and you are tossed about.  Take heart!  Be encouraged, God is still on the throne.  He hasn't forgotten any of His precious promises to you.  

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to proper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11 NIV)." 

My Library

PC Study Bible 4 Advanced Reference Library



Boy, has my library ever changed through the years! I still have lots of books, and reference works. The shelves in my study are full. I have the complete set of The Biblical Illustrator, Tyndale's Commentaries on the New Testament, The Preacher's Homiletic Commentary Series, and Barclay's New Testament Commentaries just to name a few. You should have seen my desk when I would research a topic with all those books. Alongside my bible, I would have Strong's Concordance open along with some Greek or Hebrew Lexicon's and several commentaries. I would have an idea and then get up to search through my books, looking for the reference I needed. It was a rewarding task, but definitely very time consuming. Technology has really made an impact on my study, and wow! has it ever multiplied my library!

I started with a little program that was only ten megabytes on an old XT Computer. Those ten megabytes were enormous to me then. Yes, there was room enough for the entire King James Bible, all of Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, along dictionaries of Hebrew and Greek words in the Old and New Testaments. Well My Study has come a long way, baby! Now I have hundreds of reference works available right on my laptop through a program that Hubert and I use called PC Study Bible 4 Advanced Reference Library. And if that's not enough, the World Wide Web is also available with just a key stroke or two!

There's no way my bookshelves can hold my library anymore, but there is one thing must be the same. God's Word is still the same. It is spiritually written and the Holy Spirit is still our best teacher. Blessings.

Hucakabee Endorses Deal and Graves!

Wow, is this ever a big deal in the Republican primary this year? Handel gets the endorsement from Palin, and Deal follows with the endorsement of Mike Huckabee! Well, before I just up and blurt it out that I am joining Huckabee in his endorsements of of Deal and Graves... oops! Guess , I already did. Well, still let me explain. I am certainly more impressed with the Huckabee endorsement than I am the Gingrich endorsement, and the Georgia Right to Life endorsement really matters to me! Values matter, and I know that Handel has raised the issue that she is pro-life even though she didn't qualify for the GRTL endorsement. She just had too many exceptions. That doesn't mean that I believe she is an evil woman. In the Primary we are just trying to determine who is the best person for the job, and I am convinced that Nathan Deal is that person for us right now.

Do you get all of those slick glossy political mailers in your mail box too? I guess those have also tended to help me make a decision in this race. Right from the start the Handel campaign made attacking her opponents a major thrust. The goal was apparently to paint the rest as the corrupt-politics-as-usual crowd, and herself as the people's champion. I think she is gambling on the political unrest in the parties and the success of the tea party. Unfortunately, she hasn't told the whole truth and nothing but the truth in her attack ads, and I'm afraid the dirty politics has had the reverse effect, making her the corrupt-politics-as-usual candidate instead of her opponents.

YOU MUST READ THIS statement from Maurice Atkinson former Bibb County chairman for the Handel Campaign as of August 1st.

"For months I have been organizing for Karen Handel in her quest for governor. Karen is a friend and was helpful to me when I served on the Bibb County Board of Assessors. Several years ago, when she was running for Sec. of State she visited a Bibb GOP breakfast. After the meeting I asked her about the issues Fulton County faced with the Board of Assessors and how the issue was taken care of. She put me in contact with her Chief of Staff and they provided documents and resources which I then gave to our Commissioners. The rest is history. From that time, I developed a respect and friendship for the Handels. I admired her tenacious spirit and can do attitude.
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"When she decided to run for governor, supporting Karen was a no brainer. I organized and connected people extolling her personality and tenacity. While many of you knew of my differences with one of the gubernatorial candidates, never did I purposely and publicly attempt to humiliate or malign him. I built up Karen, based on the Karen Handel I knew.
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"Now the field is narrowed to 2 candidates. Coming out of the primary, Karen had momentum. She was nearly 12 points above her competitors. People were inspired and motivated for “reform”. But something happened. Her ad just days before the election bugged me and I contacted her staff. She ran an ad portraying EVERYONE’s a crook but me. They shrugged it off and so did I.

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"Then Karen got into another battle with the Georgia Right To Life over stupid comments. Karen then began calling foul to the Deal campaign and began trashing Nathan because he wouldn’t get involved in her issues with a private organization. I again spoke with the campaign and suggested to them that they stay focused on the issues, not things they have no control over. Daniel assured me they were, but had to respond, as they were being overwhelmed with calls into the office. I strongly suggested they refocus to their message and what Karen could accomplish as governor.

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"This week the Handel campaign unleashes a snarky advertisement calling Congressman Deal corrupt! In concert with the ad, her surrogates have lit up the blogosphere with a literal trashing of Congressman Deal. Then sends out a mailer promoting a website funded by none other than GEORGE SOROS! You can probably lob some bricks at Mr. Deal for serving as a congressman, but to purposely and aggressively destroy his character is morally wrong. I will have no part of it. I am resigned from supporting Karen Handel.
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"I decided to do my own review of the candidates and posted items at the Bibb County Republican Party website [Maurice owns this site]. My findings are that there is a significant contrast between these candidates. Nathan Deal has spent a life of service. He is a military veteran (captain), was an assistant District Attorney, Juvenile Judge, State Legislator and Congressman. He conducts himself in a kind and humble manner, yet deliberate and focused.
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"This election is a mere days away and early voting has begun. Do we want a respected public servant who has lived a life marked with esteem or are we going for door number two, a political neophyte we really don’t know much about, who touts a resume that is incredibly suspect, but can say great buzz words. For me, I’m supporting a real patriot, Congressman Nathan Deal.
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Kindest Regards,

Maurice Atkinson

I really liked the last appeal from Deal. There was no attack politics, but a strong sense of purpose. Handel has been divisive already, and it may be that all those she has unjustly attacked will rally to defeat her bid for the party's nomination. If she succeeds, then Roy Barnes might very well be the next Governor of Georgia, and I certainly don't believe Georgia needs another Barnes administration!

I have chosen to personally endorse Tom Graves for similar reasons. I believe the Republican party already went through this process to elect him, and believe the political climate has not changed that much since his election.

Blessings

ARTICLE UPDATE: I make this brief because it's now Tuesday morning and I am heading to the polls before I go to work. My choices in the Run-off for the Republican Primary are as follows:

For Governor: Nathan Deal
For Attorney General: Sam Olens
For Commissioner of Insurance: Maria Sheffield
For U.S. Representative 9th District: Tom Graves
For County Board of Education at Large: Tony Stanley
For County Board of Education District 2: Rodney D. Lock

Now I can go vote. Have a blessed day.

Hope and a Future

In the past few days I have thought much about our vision at Christian Fellowship. We just finished what was probably the most spectacular week of Vacation Bible School that we have ever had. In the picture above, our Pharoah places a ring on Joseph's finger as a symbol of authority as he makes him the second most powerful ruler in all Egypt. Our characters helped us tell the story of Joseph's journey from prison to the palace. The memory verse for our first night was taken from Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

This awesome verse was not only a theme during our VBS, but it is a theme of our ministry here at Christian Fellowship. God has plans for each one of us, and for everyone that he brings into our fellowship. I do not believe you are here by accident. In fact, if you are reading this blog, I don't believe for a moment that it is an accident. God wants you to know that He has a plan for your life. The problem is that often we get in His way. Sometimes we make our own plans, without considering His. That's when we end up in so much mess. You see, He created you for His glory. You were created for fellowship with God, to interact with your Creator. He outlined every detail of your life. The Psalmist writes that you are fearfully and wonderfully made.

Perhaps some great difficulties have come into your life, and you don't know what to do. Take heart today. Joseph ended up in prison, but God had a plan. The prison was just a doorway to the palace, and as he continued to honor God, God worked out His glorious plan. Why not put your faith in God today and see Him reveal the wonderful plan He has for your life too?

It is our vision here at Christian Fellowship to help you discover the awesome plan God has for you. He plans to prosper you and not to harm you as He fills your heart with hope for the future.
Blessings.