Saturday, February 7, 2015

"Religion and Education"


 
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First From Julie's Keyboard:

Julie posted this on the main web site, I thought it appropriate to post it here also before her thoughts for this week.

David

From Julie’s keyboard…. Hello Neighbors!

When David decided to start this blog project, he asked me to share something on each post.  At first it didn't seem appropriate to me as this is a work about the truth of our Nation's heritage.  However, more than this, it is a work about the God of our Nation.   With this in mind, getting to share a nugget of truth or a lesson I'm tackling in the Scriptures has become a special opportunity. 

The freedoms we enjoy have come at such great costs in so many respects.  To give proper honor to all having even the most minimal part in making this so wouldn't be possible.  But, to honor the God of the Nation, the Creator of the Universe, will help us keep the focus in the right arena.  How thankful we should be that throughout the ages men have followed this Great God and proven instrumental in the liberties and pursuits we now enjoy.

Many may feel,  as I, that they come from the simple side of this life.  There's really no spectaculars or monumental events that come from my personal sojourn that need to be shared.  But, the desire of my heart is to glorify the Father in Heaven and attest to the Truth of His Son, Jesus Christ. 

In half a century of growing, study and learning, I've come to the ripe conclusion that there's just so much yet to learn.  Isn't this one of the great quests of this life?  The God of Heaven has promised to give us His Wisdom for the asking if we ask in faith and not waver.  My prayer is that His Spirit will always be the Source of these messages and that He will guide every word to His glory and honor.

If you are reading this, my prayer is that you know the Lord Jesus Christ.  May you be blessed in the things that are shared in this material.  If we can be of help with a labor of love which the Lord has granted us, please let us know.


For His Glory,
Julie



A New Commandment?

In the Epistle of 2 John, he writes to the "elect lady" saying:
"...Not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another."  In the following verse he tells us just what love is, and that being that "we walk after his commandments."  ref. 2 John 5,6

Keeping the commandments of old was not possible; man kept missing the mark.  The Law was given to reveal this truth to man.  Thus, when Christ came and fulfilled the Law, He put things all in perspective with His great love.  Here's how He now commands us to obedience.   ref. Matthew 5:17


John 13:34 "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another."

As we study the Bible, we can see a consistency in teaching us the "more excellent way" of "love."  ref. I Cor. 12:31 & 13    The two commandments that the Lord does give us in our New Covenant with Him are these:

Matthew 22:37-40 "...Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." 

Yes, He did give us a new commandment, a commandment of love.  But just as John reminded the elect lady, it's now what we've heard from the beginning.  There's no new way to right relationship and obedience to the Father.  It still comes about by obedience to His commands.  Are we loving Him with this great capacity to love?  Are we loving our neighbor "as ourselves?"    We can only attempt to do this because of the measure of His love that He's already bestowed into our lives.  Do we love Him today?


In His Love,
Julie

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"Religion and Education"

"When the minds of the people in general are viciously disposed and unprincipled, and their conduct disorderly, a free government will be attended with greater confusions and evils more horrid than the wild, uncultivated state of nature.

It can only be happy when the public principle and opinions are properly directed and their manners regulated. 
This is an influence beyond the reach of laws and punishments and can be claimed only by religion and education." ~ Abraham Baldwin, Signer of the Constitution.  Charles C. Jones, Biographical Sketches of the Delegates from Georgia to the Continental Congress (Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company 1891), pp. 6-7

Our Founders understood the scoop and limits of our Constitution, it's limits being the minds of the people.  Without the influence of Christianity upon our society, there is nothing within the bounds of the Constitution that can sustain a free government! Yet, in spite of these warnings, we in the face of our Founding principles are continuing to remove the very source of our freedom and stability as a nation. 

Self-government only works if we are self-governed, without the principles of Christianity and their diffusion, we become unprincipled and wild, requiring the necessity of more and more government regulation and control.  Look around the world and see, that the further you go from Biblical principles the more government you find necessary.

We will find the answers to our problems do not lie in our politics, though important as they are, even they are only an outgrowth of what we think and imagine.  What we are as a nation does not come from Washington or the civil court, but from the heart of the people.  This experience our Founders gave us did not come of ourselves, it came from generations of ideas that were being formed in the hearts of men through the scripture and came to fruition at the birth of our nation.


The annals of History hold the record of men, trying to succeed in some great government of themselves and the wisdom of men, only to find failure in unwavering succession.  This experience of freedom has never before happened until now, yet we are determined again it seems to grasp only at that within ourselves to sustain that which came from beyond our reach!     

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"All the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible." ~ Noah Webster.

May God bless each of you,

David

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