Exclusive Interview with Dr Rick Scarborough of Vision America
"America is in Peril Today"
Rick Scarborough served as senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Pearland, Texas from 1990 until he resigned June 23, 2002, to give his full attention to Vision America, founded in 1998. It was through a disturbing situation involving a sex education program at his daughter's high school that Pastor Scarborough decided that "enough is enough!" He mobilized his congregation and others in the community to promote traditional Biblical values in the cultural and political arenas of Pearland, effecting dramatic and much needed changes in local policies and practices. He authored a book appropriately entitled Enough is Enough! For more information, go to: Vision America.
RJM: Would you share with our readers what Vision America?s specific focus is in the battles you see in culture and politics?
RS: I have always believed that as the church goes, so goes the nation? and as the pastor goes, so goes the church. So in order to get the church involved in being salt and light, it is absolutely essential that the pastor be focused on that. We?ve created an organization of the pastor, by the pastor, and for the pastor for that very purpose.
RJM: Is there a crisis in the church, particularly with pastors as leaders and shepherds of their flocks?
RS: Without question there is a crisis, and the crisis is really one of belief. Jesus said that, unless you should fear God more than you fear man, you really can?t be an effective disciple? and certainly not an effective under-shepherd. But I?m afraid that the church today is filled with pastors who are more fearful of a handful of strong and powerful laymen in their churches than they are of God Himself; and therefore they find themselves in the worst of all worlds, trying to appease man and not pleasing God or man.
So Vision America has tried to be an organization to encourage pastors to, in the first place, give them courage -- that there are thousands of other pastors standing with them on these great world issues -- and secondly, to find those pastors and connect them.
RJM: Is there a change in this trend towards crisis in the church -- are pastors beginning to step up to the plate to stop it?
RS: I am encouraged more today than I was five years ago and I think the marriage issue, as much as anything in our lifetime has focused pastors to realize that the tyranny of judges and the spread of Secularism cannot be ignored. It?s now coming right into the churches. The whole issue of a highly mobilized [homosexual] minority in our country, using the courts to impose their lifestyles on the American people, even threatening the very sanctity of marriage itself, has caused pastors to realize that we?re not going to be able to duck these issues forever. We?re going to have to finally face them and if we don?t face them, they?re going to bury us.
RJM: History records in America?s past that we?ve had great revivals, called Great Awakenings. How would you respond to the notion that we should seek God for another Great Awakening, especially in America?
RS: I would say, one of the things that drives me forward is there are a lot of preachers and a lot of Christians in America who have basically washed their hands of this culture as if to say, ?We?re living in the last days, it?s only going to get worse, some of the end times problems are being fulfilled, so why dirty your hands with the culture? Let?s just get as many off this sinking ship as we can.? But there?s one verse of one very clear prophecy regarding end times that gives me great encouragement for an Awakening in America:
In Matthew 24 Jesus said, ?This Gospel shall be preached to every creature. Then shall the end come? [verse 14]. I see a great ray of hope in that one verse -- that a great, sweeping revival can come to America. There?s no nation on earth better prepared theologically, economically, and technologically than the United States of America to quickly take the Gospel around the world, if, in fact, true revival were to break out in this country. The eyes of the whole world are focused on our nation? we have every tool we need to do it swiftly but the one thing we lack right now is revival.
RJM: Why is it important to restore America?s Christian foundation?
RS: Well, because ?he that knoweth the good and doeth it not, to him it is sin? [James 4:17]. We don?t have any choice as Christians in the matter of whether we?re going to adhere to God?s word! But beyond that, the American experiment was a one-time experiment in all of world history where Godly men got together and sacrificed their own personal fortunes and lives to build a nation on Biblical principles. Those principles, codified and identified in the Constitution itself, gave birth to freedom that they believed were inherent rights, but they gave birth to freedom not only in this country but increasingly around the world.
When the troops came home after World War II, and even more so through the Vietnamese and Korean conflict, there was a tide of materialism that suddenly took root in this land. So many people had paid sacrifices through the times of Depression and that great World War, and they began devoting their lives and their resources to their own well-being. They soon forgot the missionary zeal required to maintain democracy and freedom. They began consuming everything. My particular generation has been the Consumer Generation. We take everything we find and we use all of it until there?s nothing left, and we throw the refuse on the ground. And we?ve done that morally in this country to such a degree that now I find my own generation, in many cases, just trying to get to the end and escape before the Holocaust comes.
RJM: Amen! I want to especially highlight your point about the American experiment: the Great Experiment of America?s founders was that it was not just about freedom, but rather a freedom that is rooted in, and guided and protected by, Biblical principles. This is a historical fact that most Americans do not realize. Our culture and our politicians are so quick to exalt and glorify ?freedom? but we have forgotten that freedom can only exist when it is grounded in Biblical principles. This is the very heartbeat of the American Experiment, the Founders built our nation on this premise, and Scripture declares this truth -- for example, James 1:25 states that we must listen to and obey the Word because it is ?the perfect law that gives freedom.?
RS: Justice Antonin Scalia, unlike any of the other justices on the Supreme Court, has a firm grasp on how we got to where we are. Until the 1940s, our whole jurisprudence system was based on legal precedence that traced itself all the way back to the Constitution, which they believed was a fixed set of guidelines and laws, approved by all 13 of the states, as a foundational, legal principle. When judges began taking this attitude of a ?living, evolving? Constitution, they completely thereby politicized our legal system?. They began reading their own opinions into the law and out of that came a ?right to privacy,? which gave birth to the whole concept of abortion rights?
Justice Scalia, with a strong, conservative leading, and a Catholic background, well documented, 20 years ago received an unanimous vote of the Senate, and his job was to simply make sure that laws that were passed were rooted in precedent and in the Constitution. But now when a judge comes on board, they want to know what his political philosophy is. Justice Scalia was confirmed by a 98-0 vote. Most people believe that today he couldn?t even make it through the confirmation process because he is a Catholic, has a solid Catholic belief system, he takes those beliefs into his decisions, he bases his understanding of the law on a Biblical world view. Those who are driven by politics would never allow him to make it to the court.
If we don?t get back to judges simply interpreting law rather than making law, then we will continue to slide toward the morass that we are currently in.
RJM: At your conference In Washington DC1 I shared with you the Declaration of Dependence, a document that highlights basic principles that the Founding Fathers wholeheartedly subscribed to regarding our nation?s dependence on God. Rare Jewel Magazine has created the DoD as a tool to help citizens determine how current candidates for public office measure up with the Founders.
RS: I was very impressed?. In fact, whether it?s voter guides, or a tool like the Declaration of Dependence, we need to put these things in front of officials before they?re elected and find out how they stand on issues so we don?t have to lobby them after their elected.
RJM: What is the most pressing need for the Christian Patriots over the next decade?
RS: The most pressing need, I think, is to restrain federal judges from legislating from the bench. America is in peril today because we have had activist judges rewriting the Constitution.
It takes two-thirds of both Houses, and three-fourths of the states, to amend the Constitution? or one judge. And we?ve had that one judge, in countless cases a one-judge majority, rewriting the moral code of this country and that simply has to be stopped. The ground that has been lost must be recovered.
I think the most essential things for Christian Patriots across the country is to get informed on these issues; get involved in these issues; register; vote; and use their influence to register and get to the polls thousands of others just like them.
RJM: The Constitution gives the House of Representatives power to reign in an overactive and tyrannous judiciary, through limiting jurisdiction and even impeachment.
RS: That?s right. The House brings forth impeachment charges and the Senate conducts the hearing; in effect, conducts the trial. Congress clearly has the jurisdiction over the courts in that regard. Its duty is to hold the courts in check and make sure that our judges obey the Constitution themselves. As Franklin D Roosevelt said, ?It?s time to save the Constitution from the judges, and the judges from themselves.?
RJM: We need a more informed citizenry who will frequently communicate with their legislators, provide encouragement, and apply pressure so that our nation?s public officials will lead by performing their Constitutional duty to protect our nation from un-Constitutional judges.
RS: That?s the reason our two organizations exist ? Vision America for pastors; and a subsidiary called the Judeo-Christian Council for Constitutional Restoration for laymen. We have got to be like the men of Issachar,2 who understand the times and know what the people of God must do. That is absolutely essential.
That?s one reason I praise God for Rare Jewel Magazine and the good work you folks are doing. It?s becoming a tool for revival, including understanding that revival has a very practical application. At some point in time we?ve got to take off our church clothes and put on our street clothes and impact the culture.
RJM: Well, along those lines, I?ve noticed, Dr. Martin Luther King?s niece -- Alveda King -- is actively involved in many of the things you are doing. Civil disobedience was a tool Dr King used with success. Do you ever see that as a tactic that Christians use?
RS: I do see that. I think that we have to keep in our arsenal all these weapons of spiritual warfare. I believe that if God leads us ever -- but if it comes to a time where we can?t do it any other way, then there comes a time where we peaceably resist. That does not mean we take the law into our own hands. Much like the model of Martin Luther King, with peaceful demonstration they resisted tyranny, sometimes we have to be prepared for just such an action as that.
RJM: A recent example is former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore? he peacefully resisted an unlawful order.3
RS: That?s exactly right. And by the way, Daniel peaceably resisted an unlawful and ungodly order to cease praying to his God. Three times a day he knelt by his window for all to see. He didn?t take up arms against the king of his day. Neither did he obey an unlawful order. He continued to worship God. There are times when if the law is tyrannical, if there comes a choice to obey God or man, for the true believer, there is no choice but to obey God.
RJM: What can our readers do to support Vision America -- your focus on the federal judiciary and your work with pastors and congregations?
RS: Get their pastors go to our website [www.VisionAmerica.us] and join them in signing on to this effort to mobilize. We currently have about 3000 pastors in our network [Editor?s note: since this interview was conducted, Vision America?s network has grown to more than 5000 pastors]. Our goal by the year 2024 is to have pastors in every state who are connected spiritually, and connected philosophically, to stand for these great moral issues of our day. Go to our website, as layman and pastors, to sign on? join us in this great effort. Also, the obvious is to pray for us, and to pray that God will give us wisdom and the personnel and the finances.
We?ve taken on a nationwide battle, basically, out of a suitcase. God has honored us by blessing us and adding to us a growing number of faithful prayer warriors and financial supporters. But this is a long, protracted war and it?s going to take tens of thousands of soldiers praying and serving God in the trenches, and we?re trying to find those faithful believers to join us.
RJM: Are there ways that likeminded organizations like ourselves -- Rare Jewel Magazine and your organization and others ? can link arms? In many ways, we have such a common vision.
RS: That?s right. And the way to link arms is by communicating as we?re doing today by staying in touch with one another. But every two years, there?s got to be a major push to register Christians to vote, put in their hands voter guides and information about the great issues of that election, whether it?s local or national, and then mobilize them to the polls.
Elections are won on the margins and just a small number of Christians involving themselves righteously in these battles can be the determining factor whether a Godly man goes to Congress, or a Godly school board member is elected, who then takes Biblical morality into particular arenas? or whether a pagan or someone who rejects our values assumes control.
We can pray all we want for a revival in America, but ultimately, God says back to us, ?I?ve given you in this country the tools to effect that revival.? If we don?t vote, then we have no right to pray that Godly decisions will be made. Righteous men make righteous decisions. Unrighteous men make unrighteous decisions. If we don?t vote, we can?t complain, and we, really, can?t effectively pray. But if we pray and then get up and go vote, we can change the country. So, the way we stay connected, and the way we work together, is by all of us, in a common effort, using our collective resources and our individual influence, to register voters, get them informed, and get them to the polls.
Footnotes:
[1] Confronting the Judicial War on Faith; an action-oriented conference sponsored by Vision America in concert with the Judeo-Christian Council for Constitutional Restoration, held in Washington DC on April 7-8, 2005. Go to: www.StopActivistJudges.org).
[2] 1 Chronicles 12:23, ?These are the numbers of the men armed for battle who came to David at Hebron to turn Saul?s kingdom over to him, as the Lord had said?. Men of Issachar, who understood the times and knew what Israel should do??
[3] For complete story on Chief Moore, read two articles from Rare Jewel Magazine, May/June 2004: ?In His Own Words: Chief Justice Roy Moore,? 20?23; and ?A Modern-Day Daniel,? by Douglas W Phillips, 25?28.
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The Upper Room: Sep/Oct 05 (column by Managing Editor Rick Marschall)
"Shared Values: Let's Wake Up"
Rick Marschall is the Managing Editor of Rare Jewel Magazine. The author of many books on American popular culture, he began his career as a political cartoonist and columnist for the Connecticut Herald, and editor for United Feature Syndicate. Rick can be reached at: Rick@rarejewelmag.com.
Every generation of human history probably has had its full component of prophets? and of scolds. Prophets wisely discern, or speak the heart of God; scolds generally whine about ?this younger generation? and ?the good old days.? Some prophets are false, and sometimes scolds can be right on the mark.
Almost always, however, both groups are convinced they?re correct. If we enter the discussion a little late, how do we separate fact from opinion, truth from error, and unhealthy dissolution from healthy growth and change? It is not an academic question, much less rhetorical, in America today. That we are engaged in a culture war is no longer disputed. The arguments rage mostly about whether it promises disaster or allows liberation.
Besides the Bible ? God?s Word; prayer; guidance of the Holy Ghost ? there is a yardstick that Christians once used, that now gathers dust. Indeed, most citizens in the United States relied on this tool, even when they were citizens for a few hours after arrival on our shores. This tool is variously called Common Sense, Traditional Morality, Family Values, Respect, and Authority. Clarence Thomas writes about them in this issue, lamenting their near obsolescence, and equating them with values and accomplishments celebrated more widely. We can also see these homely virtues as Shared Values or a priori principles.
All these terms can be reduced to the proposition that once upon a time there were shared values in America. In our founding, in our development, all segments of our culture ? upper-crust and lower-bred; male and female; different races ? agreed on basic assumptions about life and morality. When there were differences, like slavery across the years and across the land, wounds were slow to heal. But the American culture traditionally was homogeneous. On most things we disagreed only around the edges.
No more. Marriage, dating, raising children, homosexuality, the government?s (and courts?) intrusion on daily lives, abortion, euthanasia? all are subjects sharing two characteristics at least: they weren?t contentious issues years ago; and today they tear apart families, communities, even churches. We need another Great Awakening of the sort that occasionally has occurred in the past.
Many of the issues we face are secular, yet Biblical principles apply. However, it can also be useful in the marketplace of ideas to realize that two fellow students in ancient Athens, centuries before Christ, defined two ways of looking at the world.
Plato believed there were Absolutes, moral absolutes, Truths that transcended human understanding. He believed that, largely, they were unknowable, but that the quest for Truth ennobled human beings. The reflection of Truth is found not just in music but in pleasing harmonies. He believed that Absolutes were reflected in just laws, tradition, respect in society, manners and morals.
Aristotle believed that Truth was a relative concept, that there absolutely are no absolutes. Every issue has two extreme points of view; the ?truth? is somewhere in the middle; and, anyway, every generation and society best defines its version of truth.
You can see the radical differences; you can here the extreme debates. ?It?s simply right!? ?Right for you is not right for me.? ?It?s simply wrong!? ?If it doesn?t hurt you, there is no wrong or right!?
Excuse me for continuing to simplify, but, generally, on the Platonic side we see political conservatives, cultural traditionalists, the religious, authoritarians. Among Aristotelians we find liberals, relativists, secular humanists, totalitarians. In the context of faith ? even though both predated Christ ? the church has always acknowledged that their views presaged spiritual movements; particularly, there was a strong neo-Platonist strain in the Church for centuries, often used when creeds where formulated and heresies fought.
Platonists have included St Augustine, Martin Luther, many Enlightenment thinkers, economic liberals (like Adam Smith, today regarded as strictly conservative), and neo-Orthodox theologians. Aristotelians number St Thomas Aquinas, the French Revolutionists, Hegel, Marx, and Engels, post-modernists and New-Age philosophers today.
To see the world in these terms ? or whether exclusively by the Bible, which naturally I do not decline as I recommend these additional educational tools (eyeglasses, as it were) ? is to assist you in debates and arguments. We simply must stop trying to convince our opponents, our cultural enemies, that we are too nice to actually oppose the ideas they espouse, even when we know they will bring harm and ruin. The only thing, Dr Carl McIntire once told me, you find in the middle of the road are dead skunks and yellow stripes. No: if you think something is wrong, search the Word in your heart for what the Bible affirms; pick up the Platonic yardstick that says that wrong is wrong even if your neighbors outnumber you 100 to one, speak the truth, act on it, and move on to the next battle.
Wait: here?s another way to employ that extra tool of Platonic analysis. Don?t see it as a yardstick? see it is another alarm clock to end our slumber, and start the Next Great Awakening!
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Required Reading: Great Awakenings in America (Book Reviews by Tim Ewing)
"In Our Churches, In Our Hearts"
Sons of Issachar for the 21st Century
Author: Bill Lewis
Publisher: Xulon Press
www.xulonpress.com
www.SonsofIssachar.org
The Last Awakening: A Call to Repentance
Author: David Manuel
Publisher: McDougal Publishing
www.McDougalPublishing.com
The Externally Focused Church
Authors: Rick Rusaw & Eric Swanson
Publisher: Group Publishing
www.GroupPublishing.com
Homeless in the USA
Author: Jeremy Reynalds
Publisher: Joy Junction Publishing
www.JoyJunction.org
A sovereign move of God; an outpouring of His Spirit reflected in hundreds of thousands, even millions, of testimonies; citizens converting to a real Christian faith; the reformation that would be wrought in our churches; the moral restoration that would be breathed into American culture and politics?. It is enough to make any Christian Patriot get a good dose of ?Holy Spirit Goosebumps.? What a welcome sight this would be, what relief in the midst of the current culture wars!
Unfortunately, like World War I trench warfare, progress in the battles for our nation?s soul is difficult and slow. We constantly must remain aware of poison gas launched by our opposition. ? ?hollow and deceptive philosophies?[1]; lies that our culture fashions into its own version of ?truth? ? that kill from the inside out. Oh, that God?s Spirit would sweep through our country bringing Revival that would instantly turn our enemies into brothers and sisters in Christ.
?America?s problems,? says Dr Richard Land, President of the Southern Baptist Convention?s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, ?are God-sized problems and only God can fix them.?[2] We need God in a big way; but will God respond? Meanwhile, is there a role for Christian Patriots, and if so, what should we do ? how do we prepare? Four recent books address this vital challenge, and complement each other magnificently.
Sons of Issachar by Bill Lewis is inspired by I Chronicles 12:32, which describes the group of men who joined King David in battle: ??who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do? (NKJV). Lewis, an ordained minister and graduate of Grace Theological Seminary, states, ?The wisdom that characterized the Sons of Issachar must come to characterize the church of our generation as well. Otherwise, the consequences could be catastrophic, not only for the American Church, but for the nation and even for Western Civilization as well.?
Christians have a crucial role to play, Lewis asserts. ?The purpose of God is not accomplished apart from His chosen image bearers? it is indeed a great mystery, and yet the Lord has chosen to involve us in fulfilling His purposes.? God instructed Moses to stretch out his rod to part the Red Sea, and to close the Sea after the Israelites had safely crossed, so God likewise ?desires to involve us both to initiate and consummate deliverance for our nation at this hour.?
In Sons of Issachar, Lewis hits his main thesis early and often, that God?s message for His Church in America is, ?Wake up. Watch and pray. Listen and intercede. Hear and heed.? Lewis adds that we must ?help broaden the prayer movement one person at a time. Tell a spouse, tell a friend, tell a co-worker that now is the hour. We are at a crossroads even now. We must watch and pray.? Lewis cites Biblical precedent for calls to prayer and a believer?s hope that God is not yet finished with America. Christians in America today can learn from the Old Testament Israelites, and form our action plans accordingly.
?God is calling us to look backward,? he writes, ?in order to move forward.?
The Last Awakening chronicles the many conversations, interviews, and experiences of David Manuel[3] during the six-month period leading up to America for Jesus ? a day-long prayer event that drew 25,000 people to the Mall in Washington DC on October 22, 2004, just 11 days before the presidential Election. This book is a superb, accessible primer on prayer-warrior movement starting to sweep the country, a profile of those who are being led to fast and pray while calling out to God in repentance, seeking His restoration of America?s moral foundation and His purpose for our nation.
Manuel shares insights of Christian leaders like Bishop John Gimenez (organizer of America for Jesus); Peter Marshall; Ted Haggard; Dutch Sheets; Lou Engle; Paul Jehle; and others. He discusses whether there can be another Great Awakening in America?s future ? has it already begun, and what can, what must, the Body of Christ be doing at this time. He observes that more than a century has passed since the last ?nation-shaking move of God? in America. The 1900s witnessed the Azusa Street Revival, the Pentecostal Movement, and the Charismatic Renewal ? yet none of these comes close to the impact of the Great Awakenings of America?s past.
?There is an awakening coming, on the scale of the First Great Awakening and the Second. It may be presumptuous to call it the last awakening. It may be more presumptuous to assume there is no end to God?s patience.? Manuel is bold, sharing a specific prophetic message the Lord put on his heart while he pondered the book?s title:
It is the last opportunity I will afford My people to humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways. If they do, if they repent and are reconciled with one another, then will I hear them. Then will My body be healed. And then will I heal their land. But only then.
The backdrop for The Last Awakening is 2 Chronicles 7:14 ? ?If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land? (NIV).
Manuel quotes Bishop Gimenez towards the end of his book, ?Righteousness exalts a nation.[4] It must be the foundation of any call of God?. It will come if people repent?. It?s like the prodigal son, finally coming to his senses. We need to come to our senses, realize what bad shape we?re in. When we see it, we?ll be appalled. And we?ll repent.?
From what do we repent? Could God be requiring a general repentance for His entire Body? Gimenez maintains, ?What God considers love is all about giving and considering others, and desiring good for them. Our interpretation is filled with I, me, mine. His is the opposite.? We must fulfill the First Greatest Commandment by loving God with everything we have, and from this foundation we will be equipped to fulfill the Second Greatest Commandment, to love others.[5]
Answers and advice about these next logical questions ? how do we love others and how could this usher in the next Great Awakening? ? are central to The Externally Focused Church (EFC). Co-authors and fellow Coloradans Rick Rusaw, senior pastor of Longmont?s LifeBridge Christian Church, and Eric Swanson of Boulder?s Leadership Network, provide a clarion call to churches: to repent of a self-serving forms of Christianity, instead to embrace Christ?s example of community servanthood.
In Philippians 2:15-16, the Apostle Paul exhorts Christians to ?shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life,? because Christians live in the midst of ?a crooked and depraved generation.? But how do Christians hold out the word of life to a depraved culture that no longer acknowledges God?s truth? Rusaw and Swanson answer, ?One of the most effective ways to reach people with the message of Jesus Christ today is through real and relevant acts of service. Honest, compassionate service can restore credibility to the crucial message we have to share. To tell the truth, we must show the truth.? The road to America?s next Great Awakening will be paved by Christians holding out the light of Christ via lifestyles of sacrifice and service tor others, by putting the needs of others ahead of our own.
The authors offer means to take our pulse on the matter of assuming guilt or assuaging guilt: ?Two items clearly reveal the truth about what matters most to us: our checkbooks and our calendars. Regardless of what we claim, how we spend our money and our time exposes what truly matters to us. Churches talk about service, and everyone agrees that it ought to be important to us, but do we really know how to effectively meet the needs of our communities and reach lost people? Are we willing to step outside the safety net of our church pews and cross the street into real-life, real-world acts of service in order to share the truth of Jesus Christ??
Accordingly, God instructs us in Isaiah 1:15-17, ?When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen? Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.? Rusaw and Swanson add their commentary, ?Throughout this prophetic book, Isaiah exposes the inadequacy of the faith of people who focus on loving God but forget about loving man.?
Christian Patriots, crying to God in fasting and prayer for the restoration of America?s Christian foundation, first must repent and be sure not to practice a pretentious Christianity primarily concerned with servicing themselves. Do we spend ourselves on behalf of the oppressed, have we embraced a lifestyle of true fasting, or, are we guilty of ignoring needs of those around us?[6]
Rusaw and Swanson list attributes of an externally focused church (and an externally focused Christian):
- They are inwardly strong but outwardly focused.
- They integrate good deeds and good news into the life of the church.
- They value impact and influence in the community more than attendance.
- They seek to be salt, light, and leaven in the community.
- They see themselves as the ?soul? of the community.
- They would be greatly missed by the community if they left.
In the lifestyle adjustment of choosing to serve others, Homeless in The USA is indispensable, a book is aimed at those who care to, or desire to, care for the homeless, but its lessons are larger. Its truths and advice are applicable to any people-oriented service ministry. Author Jeremy Reynalds describes his book: ?It is? designed to help you ?do it right,? and to avoid bringing any reproach upon yourself or the Body of Christ.?
Homeless contains many tips, abundant lessons (many of them learned hard), and how-to instruction. It also relates the personal story of Jeremy Reynalds and his family, who were once homeless themselves, and reveals the redemptive work of Christ in their lives as they pursued God?s call to pour themselves out for the oppressed, all resulting in the formation of Joy Junction, Albuquerque?s largest shelter for the homeless.
To provide only food and shelter would fall short of God?s call for His people to care for the needy. ?[Christianity] is seen in context with the person?s life in the community and the feeling of self worth?. Our whole aim is to make people responsible. We help them through a transition from feeling broken down, useless and feeling incapable of feeding themselves or working, to being a person who can put a few bucks away and put a down payment on an apartment,? Reynalds writes.
Here we discover why God places responsibility for meeting the social welfare needs of fellow mankind on Christians instead of on government agencies. Acts of service in the name of Christ not only meet short-term needs, but in the long run results in equipping the whole person for all of life?s challenges and opportunities. In the context of the Christian lifestyle of service, there will be opportunities to teach such fundamental Biblical truths as, ?If you don?t work, you won?t eat,? thus helping the oppressed and discipling them out of the mire and into a productive role in society.
Accordingly, Reynalds does not ask for, nor accept any federal, state or local funding. Joy Junction is truly Biblically based.
Can America experience another Great Awakening? By all means, Yes!
God is sovereign and our Land will only be healed in accordance with His will. Nonetheless, Christian Patriots are obligated to be obedient, to walk in the way that Scripture reveals is appropriate for all who bear His name, and to intercede for reformation in our churches, restoration in our politics, and revival in our culture.
These four books provide encouragement and advice. They will lead readers to weep and pray. To learn their lessons is to be willing and obedient. God will hear our prayers, and His people will experience a next Great Awakening.
Endnotes:
[1] See Colossians 2:8.
[2] From his speech at the Reclaiming America for Christ conference, February 18, 2005, in Ft Lauderdale, Florida.
[3] David Manuel and Peter Marshall co-authored The Light and the Glory series of books detailing America?s Providential history.
[4] Proverbs 14:34, ?Righteousness exalts a nation but sin is a disgrace to any people.?
[5] See Mark 12:29-31.
[6] Read Isaiah 58:4-10 and Telling the Truth in this issue on page 5.
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