Author: John Page 10 of 156

Colossians 3:23 “And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men”

Psalm 33:12 “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.”

Isaiah 40:3 “The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”

Eric Metaxas’ book “Amazing Grace” provides a stunning biography of abolitionist William Wilberforce whose Christian faith drove his decades-long struggle to end slavery. About the British culture at the time, Metaxas says the following:

“Wilberforce knew that if Britain took its faith seriously, if it actually believed the doctrines it claimed to believe, it could never have countenanced the slave trade or the institution of slavery itself.”

He went on to say the following:

“One may see in these comments how Wilberforce years later came to be thought of as the ‘conscience’ of the nation. A conscience reminds us of what we already know to be right. Wilberforce realized that Britain was a nation that had effectively lost its conscience or grown deaf to it, that claimed in every outward way to be a Christian nation, but that acted upon principles fundamentally at odds with the Christian view of human beings as immortal creatures, created in the image of God.”

In today’s America, we need men and women to cry out in the wilderness. We have effectively lost our conscience or grown deaf to it, acting at odds with the Christian view. We need Christians to wrestle our nation back to where it belongs by acting as a conscience that reminds us of what we already know to be right.

PLEASE PRAY FOR AMERICAN CHRISTIANS TO STAND UP AND SPEAK OUT AS THE CONSCIENCES OF OUR GREAT NATION.

Please pray for American Christians to stand up and speak out as the consciences of our great nation.

ADMIN: Please see the following additional post about Wilberforce from December 2023:

The Tricks of Hypocrisy

Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.’

Seventeenth Century English Puritan minister John Flavel wrote the following powerful words about the ultimate responsibility of parents:

“How many families are there, though not profane, who yet train up their children vainly and sensually, and take no care for their souls? It is no matter to them that the devil seeks their souls. If they can but leave them lands or money, they think they have fully discharged their duty. O with what language will such parents and children greet each other in hell!

Parents, I beseech you to consider your duty. Consider your close relationship and concern for their happiness. They give you joy and you highly value them. You sympathize in all their troubles, and sorrow at parting with them. Shall all of this be to no purpose? You value them, yet in the meantime shall you take no care of them for eternity?

God has entrusted their souls to you as well as their bodies. What can comfort you if they die without Christ through your neglect? O this is a grievous consideration; my child is in hell, and I did nothing to prevent it, and I helped them there!

If you neglect to instruct them in the way of holiness, the devil will not neglect to instruct them in wickedness. If you do not teach them to pray, the devil will teach them to curse and lie. Weeds will spring up in uncultivated ground. A twig may bend to any form, but a grown limb will not bend. You are an instrumental cause of all their spiritual misery. By nature they lie spiritually dead before you, and by imitation they will follow your example.

No one is as likely to do good to them as you. You have their natural affection, and daily opportunity. You know their temperaments. If you neglect, who shall help them? O remember that text: ‘And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God’ (Rev 20:12). What a sad thing it will be to see you dear children at Christ’s left hand! Oh friends, do your utmost to prevent this misery!”

Nothing else needs to be said about properly prioritizing our parental responsibility to tend to the souls of our children.

PLEASE PRAY FOR AMERICAN CHRISTIAN PARENTS TO PREVENT WEEDS FROM SPRINGING UP IN UNCULTIVATED GROUND. We must do our utmost to prevent such misery!

ADMIN: The thoughts from John Flavel came from “Voices from the Past: Puritan Devotional Readings” edited by Richard Rushing.

This PLUS post is a summary of the big thoughts that I’ve focused on during this last year. It is a way for me to reinforce this thinking for my own benefit, and challenge you with these same thoughts for your benefit.

OVERRIDING POINT 1

Isaiah 58:11-12 “And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not. And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.”

• God is looking for a faithful few who He can use to make up the hedge, stand in the gap, and repair the breach. When a society is diverging from Him, He simply seeks those who will act righteously to forego judgment and forestall wrath. In doing so, these faithful individuals can build up the old waste places, raise up stable foundations, and restore the paths of protection and provision. This is exactly what our society needs today.

OVERRIDING POINT 2

Isaiah 59:1-2 “Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you. and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.”

• The Lord is looking for a real, genuine, authentic, ever-guiding, never-neglecting faith. He isn’t looking for a part-time faith. He isn’t looking for lack-luster faith. He isn’t looking for a fair-weather faith. He isn’t looking for a half-hearted faith. Instead, He is looking for a faith that pervades our lives and propels our labors.

OVERRIDING POINT 3

Isaiah 58:7-8 “Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? When thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward.”

• We are directed to help meet the practical and spiritual needs of the desperate world in which we live. If we do, then we will illuminate our world like a magnificent sunrise. We will have energy and vitality to complete our tasks and a resilient reputation to lead the way. And, we will regain our ability to reflect the glory of the Lord into the environment around us that is thirsting for a glow that has been absent from their shadow-filled lives.

PLEASE PRAY THAT AMERICAN CHRISTIANS WOULD CLING TO BIBLICAL LESSONS FROM 2023 TO PROPERLY PROPEL US INTO 2024. Happy New Year!

Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”

This year, famous Air Force fighter pilot, test pilot, and Commander of Apollo 8, Frank Borman, passed into eternity. During such a year, 55 years after his famous Christmas Eve transmission, it is worth revisiting this PLUS post from 2014:

As humankind watched the liftoff of Apollo 11 on July 16^th, 1969 they were mindful of the previous Apollo missions that had paved the way for this event through their own amazing accomplishments.  Apollo 8, the mission that closed out 1968, provided its own noteworthy firsts.  On that mission, astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders became the first humans to travel beyond low earth orbit and the first to orbit the moon.  They were humbled to be the first members of mankind to see the earth in its entirety. 

As they orbited the moon on Christmas Eve 1968, they participated in the most watched television broadcast at that point in history.  During that transmission they said the following: “We are now approaching lunar sunrise, and for all the people back on Earth, the crew of Apollo 8 has a message we would like to send to you.”  They then went on to read Genesis 1:1-10 out of the King James Bible. 

Those three astronauts, with a vantage point unmatched at that point in human history, turned to the One whose vantage point is truly unmatched.  From a perspective unrivaled by previous humankind, they turned to the One whose perspective is ultimately unrivaled.  From a viewpoint that was breathtaking, they turned to the One who gave us breath.  From a point of view that marveled at the entirety of earthly creation, they turned to the Creator of the heaven and the earth. 

From our perch on this planet we may not have the perspective of the Apollo 8 astronauts, but we still have access to the One whose perspective is ultimately unrivaled.  PLEASE PRAY THAT AMERICAN CHRISTIANS WOULD TURN TO THE CREATOR OF THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH FOR TRUE PERSPECTIVE.  We need it to guide our lives so that we can properly send His message to all of humankind.

ADMIN: Please see the following for the original post about Frank Borman:

Perspective

I Samuel 14:6 “And Jonathan said to the young man that bare his armour, Come, and let us go over unto the garrison of these uncircumcised; it may be that the LORD will work for us: for there is no restraint to the LORD to save by many or by few.”

I Samuel 17:40 “And he took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in a shepherd’s bag which he had, even in a scrip; and his sling was in his hand: and he drew near to the Philistine.”

Judges 7:7 “And the LORD said unto Gideon, By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand: and let all the other people go every man unto his own place.”

John 6:9 “There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many?”

Samuel Langley was the third secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, a position largely considered as our nation’s chief scientist at the time. As it is today, the Smithsonian is a massive organization bankrolled by the U.S. Government. Langley, using the institutional resources at his disposal, was committed to winning the race to successfully create and operate the first heavier-than-air machine in powered flight, fully expecting to fly the first airplane in human history. He was right to think he would do so because his only apparent competition was a couple of newspaper printers turned bicycle tinkers from Dayton, Ohio known as the Wright Brothers.

While Langley was arrogantly spending money by leaping into the air and testing his concepts, the duo from Dayton were carefully and miserly considering various concepts for success as they marched through innovative concepts that would inform every component of powered flight.

The Wright Brothers were a savvy duo without deep pockets. Committed to their cause, they went about systematically considering the challenges set before them. They watched and studied birds, flew kites and gliders, and carefully explored creative concepts, such as wing warping, propeller design, airfoil optimization, and control system configuration. They even created a wind tunnel to methodically test and evaluate their novel ideas, filling volumes of notebooks with their findings.

In the end, Samuel Langley nearly died by throwing himself and his resources into his failed attempts at flight. On the other hand, the Wright Brothers succeeded in conducting four flights on a gusty day in Kittyhawk, North Carolina on December 17, 1903. In his failed pursuits, Langley was bankrolled with over $70,000 in investments (about two million dollars in today’s dollars), while the Wright Brothers only spent $1,000 (about $28,000 in today’s dollars).

The investment of Orville and Wilbur was less than two percent of that of Langley, yet it yielded a massive return. It also demonstrated an important example that the biggest budget does not always yield the best results. Even with their limited resources, they soared above the competition.

God’s economy is far different than our economy. He can work through even the least likely among us, and yield the biggest results from the most measly investments. Just because we are outnumbered, outspent, outgunned, and outmaneuvered in the ways of the world does not mean that God has yielded to the forces of evil. In fact, just the opposite. It is when things seem least likely from a human perspective that God’s power shines through the darkness in the most magnificent of ways.

PLEASE PRAY FOR AMERICAN CHRISTIANS TO NEVER SEE OUR HUMAN WEAKNESS AS THE END OF THE STORY. Even through our frailty, God’s perfect plans will soar above the competition.

NOTE: The Wright Brothers were ready to complete their first flight on December 13^th, but it was a Sunday. In honor to the Lord, they didn’t work on Sundays and so they waited for the next good weather day to complete their record breaking flight.

ADMIN: The Langley vs. Wright Brothers story comes from my newly-published book “BOOM! Leadership that Breaks Barriers, Challenges Convention, and Ignites Innovation.” Please check it out!