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Category Archives: influence

What Kind of Influence?

I thought this was interesting. It’s amazing that 2 men born on the same day could have such opposite effects on society. We may not have quite the sphere of influence that these men had, but our lives will influence otheres around us as well. What kind of influence do you want to have?

 

Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were born on the exact same day, February 12, 1809, but their lives had opposite effects.

 

Lincoln is best known for freeing millions of slaves by issuing the Emancipation Proclamation, claiming all men are created equal.

 

Darwin’s theory of evolution claims men are not equal as some are more evolved, and has been used by totalitarian regimes to enslave millions.

 

Lincoln’s last act in office was to put on all National Coin the motto, “In God We Trust.”

 

Darwin’s theory has been used to deny of God.

 

Lincoln, the first Republican President, addressed the Indiana Regiment, March 17, 1865:

 

“Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.”

 

On April 6, 1859, Lincoln wrote to H.L. Pierce:

 

“This is a world of compensation; and he who would be no slave must consent to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, and under a just God, cannot long retain it.”

 

After the Battle of Antietam, Lincoln told his Cabinet, September 22, 1862, as reported Treasury Secretary Salmon Portland Chase:

 

“The time for the annunciation of the emancipation policy can no longer be delayed. Public sentiment will sustain it, many of my warmest friends and supporters demand it, and I have promised God that I will do it.”

 

When asked by Secretary Chase to explain, Lincoln replied:

 

“I made a solemn vow before God, that if General Lee were driven back from Pennsylvania, I would crown the result by the declaration of freedom to the slaves.”

 

In his Second Inaugural, March 4, 1865, just 45 days before his assassination, Lincoln stated:

 

“If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove,

 

and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came,

 

shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him?…

 

If God will that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsmen’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said

 

‘the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.’”

 

Lincoln stated in his Second Annual Message, December 1, 1862:

 

“In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free…We shall nobly save – or meanly lose – the last, best hope of earth…The way is plain…which if followed the world will forever applaud and God must forever bless.”

 

In his Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863, Lincoln stated:

 

“Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

 

In contrast, Darwin published his “Origin of Species,” 1859, and in 1871, his “Descent of Man,” in which he wrote:

 

“With savages, the weak in body or mind are soon eliminated…

 

We civilized men, on the other hand…build asylums for the imbecile, the maimed and the sick…Thus the weak members propagate their kind.

 

No one who had attended to the breeding of domestic animals will doubt that this must be highly injurious to the race of man…Hardly anyone is so ignorant as to allow his worst animals to breed…

 

Civilized races of man will almost certainly exterminate and replace the savage races throughout the world…

 

The break between man and his nearest allies will then be wider, for it will intervene between man in a more civilized state, as we may hope, even than the Caucasian, and some ape as low as a baboon, instead of as now between the negro or Australian and the gorilla.”

 

Darwin’s concept justified the racism of the Dred Scott v Sanford Decision, 1856, written by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, who was appointed by Democrat President Andrew Jackson:

 

“Slaves had for more than a century before been regarded as beings of an inferior order…so far inferior, that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect; and that the Negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit.”

 

Darwin’s theory influenced Margaret Sanger, who promoted “eugenics” and “forced sterilization” to eliminate inferior races. Sanger founded a 501(c)3 called Planned Parenthood.

 

Margaret Sanger, in her book Pivot of Civilization, 1922, called for the:

 

“Elimination of ‘human weeds’…overrunning the human garden; for the cessation of ‘charity’ because it prolonged the lives of the unfit; for the segregation of ‘morons, misfits, and the maladjusted’; and for the sterilization of genetically inferior races.”

 

Sanger advised Nazi Party member Ernst Rudin, father of “racial hygiene,” who educated on the dangers of hereditary defectives.

 

Nazi’s considered the German “Aryan” race as “ubermensch,” supermen, being more advanced in the supposed human evolution.

 

When Germany’s economy fell, Hitler’s national healthcare plan of socialized medicine had to cut expenses, such as keeping alive handicapped, insane, chronically ill, elderly and those with dementia. They were considered “lebensunwertes leben” – life unworthy of life, and sent to the gas chambers.

 

Soon criminals, convicts, street bums, beggars and gypsies, considered “leeches” on the State, met the same fate.

 

Eventually, in a perverted effort to rid the human gene pool of less evolved “untermensch”- under mankind, Hitler’s immoral plan sent 6 million Jews, along with millions of others, to the holocaust gas chambers and ovens.

 

Joseph Stalin followed suit in the Soviet Union, exterminating through intentional famines, forced labor and executions an estimated 27 million “inferior” Ukrainians.

 

Mao Zedong followed this example with his atheistic Communist Party policies causing an estimated 80 million deaths in China.

 

These not too distant genocides resemble the Islamic teaching that Jews are from apes, Christians are from swine, and Kafir infidels are inferior “dhimmi” – not equal to believing Muslim males, which led to a sharia political system that in 1,400 years contributed to an estimated 270 million deaths.

 

History reveals that the consequences can be frightful if a government adopts Darwin’s utilitarian value of human life and departs from President Lincoln’s belief, “that all men are created equal.”

 

Pray The Word

There is nothing quite like the Bible, God’s Holy Word.

How wonderful it is to be able to

preach it

teach it

hear it preached and taught

read it

meditate on it,

but do we pray it?

A long time ago, I learned that we can incorporate the Word of God into our prayers. Doing this is something that can add a new dimension to your prayer life. Here are some examples of things I have prayed.

 

For myself personally

Psalm 51:10

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

 

Psalm 19:14

 

Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.

 

Psalm 86:11

 

Teach me thy way, O LORD; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name.

 

Things I Pray For Our Church

 

1Timothy 6:12

 

Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. (Lord, help us to continue to fight the good fight of faith!)

 

Jamess 4:7

 

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (Lord, help us to submit ourselves to you so we can resist the devil!)

 

James 1:22

 

But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. (Lord, help us to be doers of your Word and not hearers only!)

 

2Peter 3:18

 

But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen. (Lord, help us to grow in your grace and knowledge.)

Things I Have Prayed As A Parent

 

 

Proverbs 22:6

 

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.(Lord, help us to train up our children in the way they should go, that when they are old they will not depart from it!)

 

Eph 6:1,2

 

 Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.

 

Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;) (Lord, help us to train our children to be obedient and honor their father and mother as your Word says!)

 

James 1:5

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. (God, give us wisdom to know how to raise our children to serve You!)

 

Deu 6:6,7

 

And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:

 

 

And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. (Lord, help us to be diligent in teaching your Word to our children!)

 

These are just a few examples of things in the Word of God that we can incorporate into our prayers. If you feel your prayer life may be a little dry, or you’re feeling like you may be in a rut of praying the same thing over and over again, I challenge you to put the Word of God into your prayers. There is power in God’s Word!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blown Away – Part 3

As my sister Karen gave her eulogy of Tom, she mentioned that she had found my brother’s prayer list as she was sorting through some of his belongings. It was 14 pages long. Wow! Tears filled my eyes. Later, when the family was all together at Karen’s house, I asked if I could see the list. It was incredible. I saw names of individuals and names of churces. Everything was organized into categories such as family members, missionaries, people I have witnessed to, etc. I saw some names of people I haven’t heard from or let alone even thought of in years, but Tom thought of them and prayed for them. My mom mentioned that he went through his list every Friday. I was totally blown away! As I was thinking about this prayer list, a scripture came to my mind. These are words that Jesus spoke about prayer.

But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

 

Mathew 6:6

 

 

I can’t help but believe that my brother who prayed much in secret is now being rewarded openly in the presence of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Tom, although you have departed from this earth, I know God is still working in people’s hearts and lives through the prayers that you prayed for them. Thank you for the example you left that is challenging me to want to pray more. Perhaps one day, when we reach the other side, God will reveal to us just how much truth is in this quote.

“More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.”

Alfred Lord Tennyson

 

 

 

The Joy Of Power Steering

 

For the past 3 or 4 weeks the power steering in my car has not been working. At times, this made driving a real challenge, especially when it came to navigating those tight turns. When doing on street parking, I needed to park in a spot where no other cars could park in front of me, because I might not be able to get out without hitting another vehicle.  In short, I just couldn’t always get to where I wanted or needed to go, because I didn’t have enough strength on my own to turn that wheel.  One day while I was driving to work, I started thinking about what my life was before I knew God. Even though I had some sense of right and wrong, I often found myself in situations where it seemed I couldn’t go the right direction, even though I was trying and had a desire. I can remember particular instances where my conscience told me that what I was doing was wrong, and yet, I persisted in the thing I was doing. My problem was that I had no power.

I’m thankful that all of that struggle started to change when I received the baptism of the Holy Ghost as a teenager! Jesus tells us in Acts 1:8

“But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”

I found that after I received the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues, not only did I have power to be a witness for the Lord, but He gave me power over the sin with which I struggled.  Almost immediately I stopped using foul language which was something I really tried to do on my own, but I found that curse words would slip out of my mouth without me even thinking about it. God just took that away! He also helped me to break off a relationship which I knew was taking me in the wrong direction. It is amazing what the power of the Holy Ghost can do in a person’s life! When my daughter was just a toddler, I remember a young man who came and visited our church one day. This guy had a shaved head, goatee beard and just looked like a trouble maker. You could tell he had lived a rough life. I learned later that he had been invovled in gangs and drive by shootings. To make a long story short, he ended up repenting of his sins, being baptized in Jesus’ name and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. If you were to see him today, you would never know that he was a former gang member. He is completely different – changed by the power of the Holy Ghost!

Since the time I received the baptism of the Holy Ghost, there have been times when I started to veer off course. Perhaps I wasn’t praying like I needed to or I had slacked off in reading the Word or I wasn’t faithful to the house of God. I would start to mess up, and I could definitely tell that the “powering steering fluid” in me was low. Thank God He gives us the opportunity to repent and get back on track when we start to go in the wrong direction! We can get a refilling and a renewing in the Holy Ghost so that we can have power to continue living in a way that is pleasing to Him.

I am happy to report that the power steering problem in my car was fixed yesterday. No more trying to crank that wheel with just my own strength!

 

 

 

Drive ‘Em Out!

 

Joh 2:13-17

 

And the Jews’ passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem,

 

And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting:

 

And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew the tables;

 

 

And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father’s house an house of merchandise.

 

 

And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.

 

This portion of Scripture seemed to leap out to me today as I was doing my Bible reading. If I could go back in time, I think it would have been something to see Jesus’ driving the money changers out of the temple. There are just some things that do not belong in the house of God, and Jesus was not the least bit afraid to say so. While Jesus is not physically present here today doing what he did in the temple on that day, I’m thankful that He does have men of God with a zeal who are not afraid to drive out bad attitudes, spirits and doctrines of devils through the preaching of the Word of God! Over the years, I feel like God has invested in me and put a lot of good things into me through the preaching of the Word of God, but I know I could not be complete with just “positive preaching”. I have had bad attitudes and wrong thinking that needed to be driven out through the preaching of the Holy Bible.  A loving, earthly parent will correct their child and administer the rod of correction when it is needed. I’m thankful that our Heavenly Father is the same way, and that if we will let Him, He’ll drive out our “stinkin’ thinkin” through an anointed man of God that delivers the Word!

 

Got Milk?

Got milk? Got pasteurized milk? You might want to thank God and Louis Pasteur, who died on this day in 1895. I like the quote of Pasteur at the bottom of this American minute below. I am so thankful to know that there is a loving Creator and that my life is not just a series of mere random events!

American Minute with Bill Federer

September 28

He developed vaccines for rabies and anthrax, revolutionized medicine
with his germ theory of disease, and laid the foundation for the
control of tuberculosis, cholera, diphtheria and tetanus.

While Dean of the Faculty of Sciences at Lille University in France,
he developed the process of “Pasteurization” of milk.

This was Louis Pasteur, who died SEPTEMBER 28, 1895.

President Eisenhower wrote January 8, 1954:

“Pasteurization of milk has prevented countless epidemics and saved
thousands of lives.”

President Johnson stated April 7, 1966:

“Years ago Louis Pasteur said, ‘I hold the unconquerable belief that
science and peace will triumph over ignorance and war; that nations
will come together not to destroy, but to construct; and that the
future belongs to those who accomplish most for humanity.’”

President George H.W. Bush stated February 13, 1989:

“You know, Louis Pasteur once said: ‘Chance favors only the prepared
mind.’…For America to be prepared for the future, our children must
be educated.”

Dr. Louis Pasteur wrote:

The more I study nature, the more I stand amazed at the work of the
Creator…

There is something in the depths of our souls which tells us that the
world may be more than a mere combination of events.”

 

Do Something Today!

It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do little – do what you can.  ~Sydney Smith

I found this quote that I really liked. Then I remembered a poem that I liked that goes along with it. May you have a great day doing a little something for somebody. :-)

HOW TO BE HAPPY

Are you almost disgusted with life, little man?
I’ll tell you a wonderful trick
that will bring you contentment, if anything can
Do something for somebody, quick!

Are you awfully tired with play, little girl?
Wearied, discouraged, and sick-
I’ll tell you the loveliest game in the world,
Do something for somebody quick!

Though it rains like the rain of the flood, little man
and the clouds are forbidding and thick,
You can make the sun shine in your soul, little man
Do something for somebody, quick!

Though the stars are like brass overhead, little girl,
and the walks like a well-heated brick
and our earthly affairs in a terrible whirl,
Do something for somebody, quick!

Author unknown

 

I Love This Poem!

My husband recently posted this poem on our bulletin board at church.  I am so thankful for the preachers I know who are not afraid to declare what the Word of God says!

THE PREACHER ON THE FENCE

From out of the millions on the earth
God often calls a man
To Preach the word and for the truth
To take a royal stand.

‘Tis sad to see him shun the cross,
Nor stand in its defense
Between the fields of right and wrong:
A preacher on the fence

Before him are the souls of men
Bound for Heaven or Hell;
An open Bible in his hand,
And yet he will not tell

All the truth thats written there,
it haveth an offense
The joys of heaven, the horrors of hell
A preacher on the fence

Now surely God has called the man
To battle for the right.
‘Tis his to ferret out of the wrong
and turn on us the light.

And yet he dare not tell the truth,
He fears the consequence,
The most disgusting thing on earth
A preacher on the fence.

If he should stand up for the wrong,
The right he’d not defend;
If he should stand up for the right,
the wrong he would offend.

His mouth is closed, he cannot speak
For freedom or against.
Oh Great God deliver us from
A preacher on the fence

But soon both sides will find him out
And brand him as a fraud,
A coward who dares not to please
The devil or his God.

Oh God free us from fear of man,
From cowardly preference;
cleanse out the dross and fear of loss,
and keep us off the fence.

Author unknown

 

Friday’s Featured Quote

“All human discoveries seem to be made only for the purpose of
confirming more and more strongly the truths that come from on high
and are contained in the Sacred Writings.”

Sir John Frederick Herschel on the Bible

 

Preserved!

For the past 3 years, we have been blessed to attend a wonderful conference called PATH. The acronym PATH stands for Preserving Apostolic Truth and Holiness. I started thinking about this acronym, and in particular that first word, “preserving”.  When we preserve something we are keeping it alive or keeping it from becoming spoiled and of no use.  We tend to want to preserve things that are of value to us. Memorabilia may be preserved in a scrapbook to be tucked away and taken out once in a while when we feel like remembering good times from our past.  We can preserve fresh cut flowers given by a loved one a little longer by adding the powdery contents of the little packet that comes from the florist. My wedding dress that I wore 28 years ago was dry cleaned and sealed in a special box to keep it from yellowing and disintegrating.

There are many things that can be preserved, and it’s worth going through the process to preserve them. However, there is nothing more important to preserve, nothing of greater value than our soul.  It is a truly wonderful and glorious thing to see a soul liberated through repentance, water baptism in Jesus’ name and the infilling of the Holy Ghost, but this is only the beginning. We must continue to keep ourselves in the love of God, and keep our souls, because the Scripture does teach that there is a danger of losing our souls.

Colossians 2:8

 

Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

Here is the Amplified version of this verse.

 

 

See to it that no one carries you off as spoil or makes you yourselves captive by his so-called philosophy and intellectualism and vain deceit (idle fancies and plain nonsense), following human tradition (men’s ideas of the material rather than the spiritual world), just crude notions following the rudimentary and elemental teachings of the universe and disregarding [the teachings of] Christ (the Messiah).

 

There are many philosophies and ideas in our world, but the only thing that will save and keep our souls is hearing the Word of God preached and taught in truth and obeying it. I’m so thankful for men of God who are not afraid to declare the pure, unadulterated Word of God!  

 

 

Psalm 119:133

 

Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.

 

Hebrews 12:14

 

Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:

 

Psalm 97:10

 

Ye that love the LORD, hate evil: he preserveth the souls of his saints; he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked.

 

 

 

 
 
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