Fellow Patriots,
Well, we had lunch with Festus on Thursday and he shared the topic below with me over our brief gathering. So, I jokingly challenged him by saying "Festus, sounds like a great topic for a news letter to share with the readers". Well, I'm very much appreciative of his time and efforts but I was kidding him to simply get under his saddle a bit. My brother has a full plate these days and anything he provides, briefs me on, researches and provides or calls to chat about, it much appreciated. The article Festus provided below is something different but I do believe folks are level headed enough to know where Festus is coming from. If one spends anytime at all reading alternative news daily, the topic will be familiar. I hope the words below will lead you to have deep thoughts and be moved to dig deep down and know where you stand on the final statement and question. I ask it in my book and Festus challenges the reader now. Enjoy and blessed.
Convictions By Festus.
In some of my daily cruising of websites that I collect data points from and can then later play connect the dots to see what emerges I came across the name of Rick Joyner who had written a number of blogs about civil war 2 from a Christian and biblical prophecy point of view. That caught my attention so I started digging. I am not getting into debates on whether his views are on or off base but he did say something in one of the interviews I watched that made me stop and think. This may not be the direct quote but what he said was that a DC politician had said to him that people would see more backbone and conviction in DC if the churches across America would back them up.
This comment could be a cop-out. But it could also be a genuine observation. What do you think? If you go back in American history to the revolutionary war and look at the miracles that happened to form this country it can be eye opening. How were the founding fathers able to work thru their differences and get the Declaration of Independence and later the Constitution worked out and signed off. From what I understand there were several factors that came together for them.
One was they had learned to read using the Bible (at least most of them) and they had read the classical literature so they had a lot of common ground.
Another big factor that seems to have been purely a God thing in that some of the pastors of the local villages and towns preached directly from the Bible and called a spade a spade regardless of who it might upset or who might not give as much that week. They called out what was right and wrong at that time.
The founding fathers attended those churches and were hearing the same things across the colonies. They had conviction and the ability to use it. When the time came those same pastors, that influenced the colonies and inspired the founding fathers, also personally demonstrated their own convictions by throwing off their black robes, picked up their guns, and led the men of their congregations into battle. Thus they became know as the Black Robe Regiment. Many served as officers in the army. Can you identify any churches or pastors today that are cut from the same cloth? In my experience it is very hard to find such a person and church leader.
It seems that a lot of churches have become entertainment centers and full of programs to draw people in but when was the last time the pastor spoke from the pulpit trying to get people involved in the local affairs of their community? Like addressing the Common Core school curriculum that is so detrimental to our youth and trying to get people in the congregation to go with him to address the school board on the issue. Or trying to get people to go with him to address the city council to oppose alcohol sales in movie theaters. The point is not whether you agree with those topics or not. The point is the demonstrated conviction of church leadership to get out and try to do something based on the Bible.
It seems that a lot of churches have given in to political correctness and fear of the IRS in what is known as the Johnson amendment, thru which the government says that churches cannot address politics or support a particular candidate without losing their tax exempt status.
I am not really down on churches per-sey. And pastors have a very difficult job to do. They lead people to Christ, feed the new people the milk that they can digest, and try to give the more mature Christians the meat they need. As the old saying goes, you can't please all the people all the time. I grew up as a preachers kid and saw a lot of difficulties that my dad and my grandad went thru in their churches. It is a very hard job.
I have become frustrated with the programs and political correctness that seems to have taken over many churches. I have been looking for a Black Robe Regiment kind of church/pastor and have not been able to find it. Interestingly I am far from alone. I have seen a couple of reports with statistics showing that overall churches are facing declining attendance and especially with the younger adults. Why are they leaving or not starting to begin with? I am bumping into more people every year that have stopped attending for some of the same reasons that I am experiencing.
This conviction and leadership topic in churches extends to personal lives as well. There have been many articles on the web about civil war 2. Lots of comments posted below the articles point out how weak, lazy, uninformed, etc people seem to be today. As long as they have their favorite show and a cold one in their hand they are happy. When it comes down to it and the fertilizer is in the spinning blades will people know it and will they stand up to do something? In today's world does any conviction go beyond the door or the end of the driveway? Something to think about.
As with preparing for whatever you think might hit, be it financial, natural disaster, grid down, etc. and all the energy and resources that are consumed for it, one should invest the time, energy, and thinking required to have core convictions established that determine where your line in the sand is and why.
People have asked me what would I do if things are bad and a neighbor or family member showed up at my door wanting help. Would I or wouldn't I help, how, and why? Or would or could I pull the trigger at some point. The effort invested in coming to your own core convictions helps tremendously in coming to your own answer to this kind of question. It's hard to do and may even change over time but it is time investing in yourself and it is very well spent.
Ol' Festus is out of here...
Bravo Echo Out
Comments