PLUS

Romans 13:1 “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.”

Psalm 20:7 “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.”

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

Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”

In the first year of the PLUS ministry, I posted a series on the Declaration of Independence. In the intervening ten years, much has changed in the culture and the climate of our great nation. As a result, it is time for a refresher on the truths of our founding, the power of our founding principles, and the God-given wisdom of our founders.

Let me start this series with some provocative and powerful thoughts from Frederick Douglass, an amazing 19th Century American orator, abolitionist, and woman’s suffragist. He was one of the greatest minds and speakers in American history. And as an escaped slave, he offers a particularly unique view of the American experiment.

Douglass stated the following hard truth (1860):

“The American people, likewise, have made void their law by their traditions; they have trampled upon their own constitution, stepped beyond the limits set for themselves, and, in their ever-abounding iniquity, established a constitution of action outside of the fundamental law of the land. While the one is good, the other is evil; while the one is for liberty, the other is in favour of slavery; the practice of the American government is one thing, and the character of the constitution of the government is quite another and different thing.”

There is an important nuance to be noted. When it came to slavery and other shortcomings in our society, there was a major application problem with our founding principles and not an underlying systemic problem. In fact, Douglass said that “the Constitution is a GLORIOUS LIBERTY DOCUMENT” (emphasis provided by Douglass). He called our founders “great men” and “brave men.” He stated that “the fathers are entitled to the profound gratitude of mankind.”

None of these thoughts overlook their sins, their tragic errors, and their serious shortcomings. Those are plain for all to see. But for Douglass and for us today, we must recognize the stunning brilliance of a government formed on an acknowledgement of the higher powers that are ordained of God. The Constitution and the Declaration of Independence can be considered GLORIOUS LIBERTY DOCUMENTS because they are formed on a Biblical bedrock – the ultimate GLORIOUS LIBERTY DOCUMENT.

PLEASE PRAY FOR AMERICAN CHRISTIANS TO BE SUBJECT TO HIGHER POWERS AS THE FOUNDATION OF OUR PERSONAL AND NATIONAL BLESSINGS.

Matthew 16:24-26 “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”

Matthew 6:31-33 “Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? Or, What shall we drink? Or, wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”

II Timothy 2:3-4 “Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good solider of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a solider.”

I recently completed “44 Days of Faith and Valor: A Warrior’s Daily Devotional” by Philippines National Police Lieutenant General Cesar Hawthorne R. Binag. I had met PLTGen Binag a few months ago at the Spiritual Leadership Conference Asia, and was inspired by his massive cultural impact on the public safety community in the Philippines by infusing a Christian foundation into their core. His devotional was wonderful!

One of the devotions precisely matches the theme from last week (see the following link), which is worth amplifying with this additional context.

Constant Repetition

Binag writes the following:

“As soldiers, dutiful obedience should be second nature to us. It’s ironic that some of us Christians in the military or police don’t have a problem with obeying our (human) officers and commanders; yet we refuse to obey God. We obey our commanders because they can punish us – make us do push-ups or cancel our VOCO passes which allow us to go outside the camp for leisure and other reasons.”

His conclusion is spot on:

“How low, therefore, is our view of God; and how little our respect for Him is when we fear our officers more than we fear Him: when we would not dare disobey our officer’s orders but would blatantly disobey His Word and instructions in the Bible.”

Amen! Whether we are an officer, a commander, or a good soldier of Jesus Christ, we must demonstrate our faith, respect, and appreciation by following Him FIRST!

PLEASE PRAY FOR AMERICAN CHRISTIANS TO SERVE OUR HEAVENLY COMMANDER WITH DUTIFUL OBEDIENCE AND RESPECT. We must!

Matthew 16:24-26 “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”

Matthew 6:31-33 “Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? Or, What shall we drink? Or, wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”

Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

Jonathan Edwards wrote the following insightful thoughts:

“In worldly concerns, we discern their opportunities, and are careful to improve them before they are past. The farmer is careful to plough his ground and sow his seed in the proper season. When the harvest is come, he will not sleep away the time, or the crop will soon be lost. How careful and eagle-eyed is the merchant to improve opportunities to enrich himself? How apt are men to be alarmed at the appearance of danger to their worldly estate! O how they stir themselves in such a case to avoid the threatened calamity! But if we consider how men generally conduct themselves in things on which their wellbeing infinitely more depends, how vast is the difference. In these things, how cold, lifeless, and negligent most are. How few among the multitudes are wise!”

Edwards points out a categorical contrast between our demeanor and diligence for earthly temporal things as opposed to spiritual eternal things. For the former, we tend to be careful, discerning, vigilant, and eagle-eyed. For the latter, we tend to be cold, lifeless, listless and negligent.

It should not be so, but it is – even for Christians. That is why Edwards carries on with the following thought:

“What a need there is for a constant repetition of admonition and counsel, to keep the heart from falling asleep!”

May we do so for ourselves, for our families, and in our churches. In that way, we can best seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness as we are directed to do.

PLEASE PRAY FOR AMERICAN CHRISTIANS TO REGULARLY REMIND OURSELVES OF PROPER PRIORITIZATION AND DUE DILIGENCE FOR THE THINGS THAT REALLY MATTER. To live life with the right focus, it takes constant repetition.

Isaiah 5:20-21 “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!”

Romans 1:22 “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.”

I Corinthians 1:25-27 “Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than man. For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty”

The SR-71 Blackbird was a miracle of aviation prowess, crafted by the famed Lockheed Skunk Works. Built and originally flown in the 1960s, it could blatantly fly over heavily defended enemy territory using its exceedingly high operating altitude and blazing speed to outrun any supersonic surface-to-air missile that would try to bring it down. Those weapons would be safely left in the dust by the Blackbird as it snapped pictures and gathered highly-sought-after intelligence from directly over the homeland of an adversary. One was never brought down by an enemy, and it was eventually retired as a NASA research aircraft in 1999.

Interestingly, the aircraft was originally named the RS-71 Blackbird using the naming convention of the day to emphasize the long-range Reconnaissance mission of this amazing aircraft. Yet, in the announcement of the aircraft to the public, President Lyndon Baines Johnson accidently reversed the letters and called it the SR-71. Instead of acknowledging the simple error in the speech, the Air Force renamed the aircraft and forced the contractor to update over 29,000 manuals, blueprints, and drawings. It was a costly decision that abided by blind obedience to a few stray words instead of common sense.

Today’s society is filled with confusion. In blind obedience, our fellow citizens follow a few stray words instead of common sense or God’s clear direction. As a result, we have become fools.

Evil is called good, and good is called evil. Light has been swapped out for darkness, and sweet has been swapped out for bitterness. We are utterly confounded, and while we are wise in our own eyes, we are actually oozing with foolishness. We have forgotten that the foolishness of God is wiser than men. In the meanwhile, we stumble over ourselves as we try to justify our thoughts, our actions, our plans, our policies, our passions, and our lusts.

PLEASE PRAY FOR AMERICAN CHRISTIANS TO NEVER FOLLOW THE WISDOM OF THE WORLD WHEN IT DIVERGES FROM THE DICTATES OF THE LORD. Whenever we do, we start confusing the things that are simple. Our blind obedience to a few stray earthly words drives us to foolishness.

ADMIN: The story of the SR-71 name mix-up with the RS-71 is from the book “Skunk Works” by Ben Rich.

Romans 10:13 “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Matthew 16:24 “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.”

Psalm 121:1-2 “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.”

It is right to commemorate a day like Memorial Day for its own sake. Countless men and women have paid the ultimate sacrifice in service to our great nation throughout its long and storied history. They deserve our respect, our consideration, our appreciation, and our praise. So do their families. Yet, there is an even more spiritual reason for our churches to specifically emphasize every Memorial Day as a part of our ministry calendar.

There is an interesting connection between days of memorial and salvation. As we consider the sacrifice of those you have paid the ultimate price for us and our way of life, it prompts us to lift up our eyes to higher callings, greater purposes, and elevated meaning. Solemn consideration for those who have passed on into eternity in dedication to service towards something greater than themselves is powerful, poignant, and thought-provoking. Ultimately, it gives people a chance to consider their mortality, their value, and their purpose in life. All are ideal considerations to direct the gaze of a needful humanity to our Lord and our Saviour.

Consider the spiritual testimony of President Abraham Lincoln: “When I left Springfield I asked people to pray for me.  I was not a Christian.  When I buried my son, the severest trial of my life in 1862, I was not a Christian.  But when I went to Gettysburg and saw the graves of thousands of soldiers, I then and there consecrated myself to Christ.”

Through these words, President Lincoln is telling us that he accepted Christ because he was overwhelmed by a consideration of the fallen.  A day of memorial had caused Lincoln to lift up his eyes to the hills to consider whence cometh his help. He came to the natural conclusion that his help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.

Properly structuring our church services around Memorial Day can enable others to follow the lead of Lincoln!

PLEASE PRAY FOR AMERICAN CHRISTIANS TO PROPERLY COMMEMORATE MEMORIAL DAY WHILE PROVIDING A UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY FOR A FALLEN WORLD TO CONSIDER THE ULTIMATE SOURCE OF THEIR DESPERATELY NEEDED HELP. What a blessing it would be to experience a revival triggered by a Memorial Day consecration!