SNIFFING OUT OBAMA

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


That’s what is major in the Great Summit now bowing and smiling in London.


Nothing earthshaking will come out of it. That’s a given.


Therefore, for those into analyzing drama, there is the Sniffing Out Obama Show going on whenever the major players meet.


After all, this is Obama’s first international stage. So he and wife will be at their smiling height.


That’s about it, people. That’s about it.


Sniffing Out Obama will be augmented with applause in the boulevards. Once again we have mob hysteria supplanting logic-in-real-life-real-time.


Obama’s ego is totally engaged when mob hysteria is at its screeching peak. It drives him all the more to consider the possibility of taking the World Crown upon his head. After all, Obama has “hope” in gear.


As far as this leader show doing anything to save the globe from its cliff-edge, it won’t happen. Therefore, once again days move into weeks and weeks into months with nothing actually solving anything.


Those who believe in the God of the Bible conclude that God is at work on His turf. God knows what history is up to. God is laying out His prophetic lines in the world drama, no matter what mortals do or say.


Consequently, Bible devotees know that any of these global shows amount to nothing more than world-think in contest with divine revelation.


These devotees hold that the Bible is absolutely true when it states that God’s ways and thoughts are far, very far above mortals’ ways and thoughts. Mortals outside God think otherwise; but that only adds to the mortals’ folly.


Bible devotees realize that they continually sideline the language and thought processes of mortals, particularly mortal so-called leadership, for that has no ongoing power for global unfolding.


The Bible’s God is unfolding global this-and-that per scriptural prophecy.


In the meantime, mortals outside God flail. The more they flail, the more circumstances become snarled. Therefore, the present drama going on in London will add to this twist and turn.


For the media cameras, however, the Sniffing Out Obama Show is all they’re going to get. And consequently so with the public.

FOR YOUR CHILDREN

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


". . .weep for your children." Luke 23:28


When one carries the cross, others are looking on. Those closest to the cross carrier are family members. Therefore, it is the privilege before God to carry that cross nobly. Its reputation must be without blemish.


As Jesus was being hauled up Calvary's hill, there were those who cried out to Him, lamenting His plight. Jesus responded by stating: "Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children."


So we still weep for our children. It is the parents' privilege to intercede on behalf of the souls brought into this spiritually fallen sphere.


As the church age climaxes and the foe become more fierce against the believing remnant, all the more the cross ambassadors must cry to heaven on behalf of their offspring. There are too many traps being set by Satan against our children. They are pulled every day in the direction of dark caves to ruin and damn.


Even when those children would mock the cross, the cross bearer continues consistently loyal to Jesus. There can be no room for compromising in order to "serve the family" ahead of God. Not husband nor wife nor children nor any other clan member can come first in our allegiances. God is God and therefore we seek "first the kingdom of God and His righteousness." All else must come after that priority.


So it is that our children will take note of where we place our priorities. Always keep the cross at the forefront of your heart, your day, your nighttime, your relationships.


To weep for our children is to yearn for their salvation. It is to carry a rightful concern that they come into the crosswalk as well. Eventually some of them will; others will not. Their free wills determine their destinies; however, the cross example set by parents will be paramount.


Carry the cross, yoked with Jesus, so that those under your roof can witness your steadiness in the climb. It is significant that they see that Christianity is real, especially since there is so much which is counterfeit on all sides.


Weep for your children, not neurotically, but prophetically. That is, the weeping before heaven's throne on behalf of others has a Spirit-inspired power behind it. There is a might in intercession which is not present in other prayers. The reason is because the one praying is not praying for self but for someone else.


Consequently, frequently bring those children's souls to God in intercession. Let the demons hear your pleas. Permit the angels the honor of approving your petitions. Let the indwelling Spirit lift from your heart your concern, placing it before your heavenly Advocate for Him to present to the Father.

PURGING

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


". . .every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit." John l5:l2


When believers as branches continue to take in the daily life flow from trunk Jesus, then they bring forth fruitage to the Father's pleasing.


The more believers remain in close communication with Jesus, the more they are "purged." That is, they are refined in the way; they are matured in matters spiritual; they are tutored in the finer detail of the cross way.


Purging is not always pleasant. It is to bring forth a pleasant result; but the purging itself will be painful.


This is especially the case when purging focuses upon the egocentricity which forever seeks to return as center piece to the believers' very existence.


Jesus is a jealous God. He will not tolerate the human conceit to sit upon His throne. He is Lord God. The throne of the believer's inner room must be reserved only for the eternal royalty. Therefore, when Lord God Jesus insists that pride removes itself from the pivotal position, such will bring its own pain.


That pain will cause the sensitive soul to wince, even at times to cry out in excruciating agony. In that reaction is the telling of what choice believer will then make. Will believer give in to pride or oust pride on the spot? The former is extremely hurtful to King Jesus. The latter is most reassuring to King Jesus.


And so the purging must continue for the good of the branches, also for the producing of holy fruitage. In all situations, Father must be pleased. There is nothing which can detract from blessing Father God.


Consequently, indwelling Spirit of Jesus, having been true to Father's will while on earth, will continue to be true to Father's goal in believer's soul. There can be no compromise with deity. He must be true to His own integrity. His holy character demands it.


Therefore, cross carrier realizes from the start that when Jesus instructs to deny self-absorption, such commission is operative till the close of earthly sojourn. There can be no letting up for any reason. Self-surrender must be daily discipline in order to remain Christian.


In that course, cross bearer understands that on-going, in-depth purging will take place. Sometimes it will be extremely intense in order to see through the deeper works of purification.


When Paul wrote that he sought to live out Christ, he was confessing to coming under the personal purging. He was undergoing surgery of the human spirit. Paul, being particularly headstrong, ambitious, intelligent, and persistent, must have gone under the divine knife on numerous occasions in order to witness to the sanctification enjoyed. Through it all, Paul gave thanks to heaven for seeing through the severe work.


So it is with the cross carrier. The cross is meant to cut deeply, completing its surgery in order to lead to resurrection presence. It is the way of earth's travels when such are intersected by heavenly parenting. Father knows that we grace children must be governed in such a way of purification that nothing can deter the purging. Purging yields increased fruit, the most precious being the total obedience to the indwelling Christ King.

JESUS POWER

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


". . .for the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power." I Corinthians 4:l9


Those into showmanship focus this verse upon their marvelous exploits in the name of religion. They yearn for center stage. They set up for the next performance. Their audiences exclaim over what power is set loose in their coliseums.


When the disciples returned to Jesus to relate how marvelous were their village ministries, Jesus cautioned them not to concentrate on that kind of power. Instead, He told them to thank heaven that their names were written down in the Lamb's Book of Life. Now that's power. It's the power set loose at Calvary.


When Paul writes about power, he writes it in the context of those who have called too much attention to themselves. "I will come to you shortly, if the Lord will, and will know, not the speech of them which are puffed up, but the power."


Paul was not impressed with marvelous power; he was impressed with marvelous integrity--the power of the interior.


"What will ye? Shall I come unto you with a rod, or in love, and in the spirit of meekness?"


In other words, Paul was ready to discipline those into their own egocentric power displays. He was determined that the church would know only the interior power--lowliness, meekness, humility.


When Jesus walks alongside the cross carrier, Jesus instructs him on the power sources of heaven. They produce "poor in spirit" evidences. In other words, Jesus teaches the disciple how to let Jesus servanthood work out through human personality.


When Jesus abides within the human spirit, there can be no display of conceit. Jesus is a jealous God. He will not stand alongside pride. Therefore, either pride must go or Jesus must go. If Jesus stays, then the power of poverty comes through.


It does not take much to work up an audience nor come upon carnal extravaganzas for attention. That can be seen through in a fleck of time. But it takes some doing to come upon Jesus' brochettes. It takes everything the disciple can muster to submit to the bent frame of Calvary, to live out that sacrifice in daily grind.


Do you evidence that kind of kingdom power? It is the only kind that God commends: "Well done, thou good and faithful servant. . ."

NEWNESS

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


". . .walk in newness of life." Romans 6:4


"Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life."


God has already proven Himself two thousand years ago. Death was followed with life. Jesus was there to reveal it. Disciples saw and handled it. They ate with Him, walked and talked with Him. Life! "I am the
. . .the Life."


Therefore, proved in its apex, it is now proven over and over again in each cross bearer's experience. Christian witness has given repeated testimony to the victorious life presence.


Buried with Christ, raised with Christ, walking in newness of life.


Again, we come upon the divine chronology. There is first the one component, then the next and then the next. Order, design.


We then have hope. It is the believing that makes the glory possible. Faith is power in that it propels component into component according to heaven's scheduling.


Yet we want to mix things up so as to be wiser than heaven. We have a plan and it should be thus and that. We also have a calendar on which to pin the plan. Therefore, we bring this blueprint to heaven for heaven's smile. We even beg for heaven's approval. Sometimes we ask other believers to engage their intercessions with yours in order to convince heaven by numbers.


All this is "of the flesh." God is patient with us; but He is not pleased with us. He wants us to learn how to yield to the divine chronology. It is the death, then the rising, then the newness of life. Yet how we yearn for the life first, second and last.


Indeed, the gracious God is kind in permitting certain snatches of life even in the baptism to death. Jesus saw the life even while dying. He saw the life come into the repentant thief's eyes, then his soul. That was encouraging to Jesus even while tied to the tree.


Jesus saw the life commitment in John when this man agreed to oversee the care of Jesus' mother. Such comradeship was comfort to Jesus even while suffering his last pangs.


Jesus saw the tearful allegiance of mother Mary, crumpled at the cross' hole in the earth. As Jesus, Son, looked on at mother's woe, yet mother not leaving her Son to desertion, Jesus was consoled even while in the last agonies of Golgotha.


Jesus saw the Roman soldier begin to move away from a callused empire-loyal heart toward a recognition that the hanging One might just in fact be the long-awaited Jewish Messiah. In that Jesus was enlivened while in His final moments upon the timber.


There is the newness of life budding even now in your distress. See it. It is there. Then it vanishes. Why? For at least in this brief time frame, there is more for you to learn from the awful cross cut into your soul's shoulder. Nevertheless, the newness is birthed where you are now. It will come into full life in heaven's calendar.


Have faith. It is so just as it was so in the biography of Jesus Christ.

ALIVE POWER

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


". . .power. . .by the resurrection from the dead. . ." Romans l:4


Paul combines empty tomb power with spiritual victorious living as he greets the Roman community.


It is the death on the cross that continues its weaving into the resurrection power. One can only arrive in the might of Christ's resurrection by first knowing the cross commitment.


Many want the resurrection glory but will not pay the price of the crucifixion. This is cheap religion at its most repulsive display.


However, since the world is spiritually fallen, its composition is first pain and then pleasure. There can be no divine pleasure without first experiencing the cross pain. It is come upon because of the betrayal handed Creator God by Adam and Eve. Eden has seen to that.


All the more then the disciple praises heaven's throne for the chronology provided. It is the cross, then the resurrection. It is resurrection only when one first goes under the timber. One cannot have the one without the other; one cannot experience the relief of the one without first undergoing the trial of the other. There is an order in all divine matters.


However, being on this side of the risen Christ, we know that each trial has its own resurrection glow. We look back to the Calvary event followed by the First Day radiance to know that our Savior is zenith power. He is overcoming victory. He is the ultimate statement.


So it is with each dedicated biography. The last segment of each consecration is written by the One who stood in the garden to welcome Mary. Then the last word of the eventual finality is penned by the same winning Amen.


Even now when going through the cross suffering, one believes in the depths that the power is at work.


At Calvary, the power was at work; it appeared as if there were no divine weight to that Friday afternoon. However, heaven was indeed prodding about the cross base, seeing through the burial detail, taking note of the Roman seal, watching over the young Man's corpse laid upon the stone.


God's power is always at work in the most minute detail of each surrendered cross. The world looking on calls you failure. Often weak-willed disciples looking on say the same, even with sincere sympathy, but nevertheless, in that humanness they reveal their lack of faith. Only the truly cross experienced have traveled far enough up the mount to know for sure that there is no cross without the divine power at work in everything.


Believe even this moment that what you are wrestling with is impregnated with divine might. It may seem just the opposite. That is fine; do not look to the outward appearance. Illusions abound. Temporary is tempting even the best of us to conclude that it is permanent.


Keep faith eyes upon the scene and you will eventually witness the resurrection power. It must be so for it is a primary postulate of deity. He has lived it. He has woven it into His scheming for good. He has proven this holy character repeatedly in all surrendered cross lives.

DIVINE DEMOCRACY

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


". . .as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith." Romans l2:3


When God set forth His rescue mission called Redemption, it was meant to be available for "whosoever will." Therefore, the Calvary cross is the most democratic spot on the planet. It is where "whosoever" may come to receive the blood spilt. The Grace Gift Himself is stapled to that wood. "Whosoever" may then bow beneath that Gift to receive Him personally.


Faith makes that act possible. That faith in itself becomes the first gift provided in order for the mortal to receive the Grace Gift Himself. Faith is available to all who would receive it, then activate it toward the Calvary cross.


". . .God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith."


Everyone has been offered by Creator God the chance to be saved from sins, guilt and the fear of eternal hell. There is no prejudice with deity. He is no "respecter of persons." He Himself became incarnate to deal with us all, to open His arms to us all. There is no teacher's pet in the eternal kingdom; anyone who repents of his wrongs and so embraces Jesus becomes one of the grace children. It is that simply put.


Therefore, take that faith provision and use it for your soul's health. It is there for that express purpose.


As you accept the faith provision, you then fall in love with the Faith Provider. Why? Because He Himself has acted out so much love toward you in order to rescue you from damnation that logic would say that you would return your entire love package to Him--that is, your whole earthly sojourn for His purpose.


And at that point comes the cross.


This Jesus, having loved you with an unfathomable love upon Calvary, then reasonably expects you to be anxious to take up His very symbol--the daily cross--to walk with it. You do. Then you yoke your life's neck to Him as He makes the trek with you.


Faith makes all this possible for faith starts the jaunt and so faith will conclude the jaunt. It is all a matter of faith in One whom you have never laid eyes on. That is, your physical eyes have never taken Him in; but you have seen Him with the eyes of the soul. And it is with those eyes that you are going to see glory in heaven. So those eyes are most the significant in that they will outlast your physical eyes.


Faith opens up the friendship with your Sinless Sacrifice. Faith reveals to you the necessity and reward of the daily cross. Faith will take you home to the eternities where your Love waits for you, having prepared the Father's mansions of holiness for you.


Keep then the faith intact, unmoved, loved for its Giver's sake and kept pure by His blood.

THE EMOTION OF SANCTIFICATION

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


When one is sanctified by the Holy Spirit, what is the primary emotion which the believer will experience?


First, the emotion is not of primary concern when being infilled with the Holy Spirit. Has too much emphasis been put upon the emotional experience? No doubt so.


With undue stress placed upon feelings in religious experience, many have had to deal with much unwarranted turmoil. Earnest seekers have sought then an emotion rather than the reality. They have at times parroted others' testimonies. Or they have doubted for years whether or not sanctification has become personal to them because they have gauged it all by a particular emotion.


This is extremely unfortunate. Yet it continues to be fostered in certain quarters of so-called "holiness circles" and various segments of the charismatic movement.


Reality check: whatever God does in the life of anyone is based, not on emotion, but on Calvary. Jesus died. That occurrence took place two thousand years ago. The work of redemption and sanctification was seen through perfectly by God in the event of the Cross. Period.


Therefore, when one is redeemed and sanctified, one is dealt with by the Holy Spirit on the basis of the Calvary work, not on what emotional experience may be testified to by the individual.


This biblical premise is the alpha and omega of salvation / sanctification truth. It cannot be overstated, especially in light of numerous emotional grids placed upon sincere seekers.


Therefore, when one is saved by the blood of Jesus, such takes place in the soul when one confesses his sins to Jesus and receives His forgiving grace. Whether there is any emotion to this occurrence is actually beside the point.


Further, when one is sanctified by the Spirit of Jesus, such takes place in the soul when one consecrates his all to God. Whether there is any emotion to the occurrence is actually beside the point.


Salvation and sanctification are based upon The Event of the first century--Jesus dying for us. The facts then are two thousands year old. The truth dates back to the Hill outside Jerusalem. Those historical realities work the personal truth upon the soul when the
seeker meets God's expectations set forth in the Word.


What, however, about emotion, considering that the seeker is not only a thinking and willful creature but also an emotional creature?


When one does take into consideration emotion, then one can understand that the primary emotion related to sanctification is PEACE. Why? Because the human will no longer wars against the divine will. The believer signs a peace treaty with God, permitting God to have total control over everything.


There of course may be other accompanying emotions to peace--contentment, happiness, relief--depending upon the circumstances and the individual. But the primary emotion is that deep-settled peace--no more warring, no more carnal battles of human ego versus divine Ego.


The sanctifying peace may be exuberant or quiet, subtle or extremely obvious. In the final analysis, what does it spiritually matter?


Again, the bottom line is that the cleansing of the soul has taken place due to the sacrifice provision of Jesus. The latter guarantees the sanctification fact, not whether one has a
certain feeling.

PERSONAL PENTECOST

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


A four-liner goes like this:
It's a very odd thing--
As odd as can be,
That whatever Miss T. eats
Turns into Miss T.


Compare this now with the intake of the soul. It is one thing to know academically the doctrine of holiness; it is quite another thing to "eat in" the food of the Spirit.


It is necessary to make exact theology come to life. It is imperative that there be much more than orthodoxy; that orthodoxy must become a personal Pentecost.


If we eat only exact doctrine divorced from life, then we will be full in the head but empty in the heart. If we eat both biblical theology and daily infillings with the Spirit, then we will be whole, and satisfied.


The personal Pentecost comes when we surrender our self-centeredness to His will. It is the singing of the enlightened spirit: "Make me captive, Lord / And then I shall be free. / Force me to render up my sword / And I shall conq'ror be."


Even in the born again soul there is a fight. The war is waged between the human spirit and the divine spirit. The saved person wrestles with God before experiencing sanctified control by the Holy Spirit. But when that human will yields fully--daily--to the molding of the Creator, then the peace treaty is signed and personal Pentecost is realized.


It takes the giving over of self-centeredness into God-centeredness.


The crisis is the initial moment of surrender. The continuing then follows on a moment-by-moment fellowship in the Spirit. The harvest then comes in the lifetime of holiness till death brings forth the face-to-face, pure encounter with the presently invisible Companion.


Admiral Peary said about the north pole: "For more than a score of years that point on the earth's surface had been the object of my every effort. To attain it my whole being, physical, mental, and moral, had been dedicated."


It is with such zeal of consecration that the Christian enters into personal Pentecost. Having put self-centeredness out of the way by the fiery presence of the burning Spirit, the sanctified soul climbs to the heights gained from a lifetime of commitment to the divine plan.


The biblical truth of "without sin" (Romans 6) becomes personalized. The controlling companionship of the Holy Spirit is the key. It is what Paul meant when he stated forthrightly that he did not live, but Christ lived within him.


On one occasion, after an exceptionally moving rehearsal when the entire orchestra rose in applause for their conductor, Toscanini responded in embarrassment by stating, "You see, gentlemen, it is not me. . .It's Beethoven!"


Toscanini could not take the credit for the excellence; in fact, he had to point to the musical power that flowed through him.


Likewise the sanctified Christian knows that he deserves no praise for righteousness; all glory goes to the source, the Holy Spirit in control. The person of the Holy Ghost resides upon the yielded human spirit in Pentecost.


Samuel Shoemaker told his congregation that "sooner or later every Christian must choose between two pains: the pain of a divided mind or the pain of the crucified self."


Leighton Ford preached that "there is no detour to holiness. Jesus came to the Resurrection through the Cross, not around it." Implied is that the route is the same for us--the crucified self given over to the Easter morning pure light in Christ.


There is a price that must be paid for the personal Pentecost, but who would trade it for the reward of clean conscience and the power of purity? "The serene beauty of a holy life is the most powerful influence in the world next to the power of God," wrote Blaise Pascal.


Leonard Ravenhill said that "the greatest miracle that God can do today is to take an unholy man out of an unholy world, and make that man holy and put him back into the unholy word and keep him holy in it."


Dr. Theodore Parker Ferris preached to his Trinity Church in Boston on "The Battle Against Sin"; then he concluded the message with this prayer: '"Help us, O God, as we fight against those things which hold us back from the goal. Purify our lives, clarify our thinking and strengthen our wills, that as we love Him who loved us we may grow to be more like Him. Amen."


Pentecost is more than a Sunday celebrated once a year. It is more than a reading in the Acts of the Apostles, chapter two. It is much more than the symbol of a dove tacked to one's lapel.


Pentecost is to be realized personally by the purging presence of the Spirit of Almighty God. Once and for all? No. Once entered into, yes. But then on a daily basis--moment-by-moment--it is the continuing: perfect, and yet ever being made perfect; sanctified, and yet ever being sanctified; yielded, and yet ever yielding; purged, and yet ever being purged, till death opens up the eternal holiness in the very dwelling of the divine.

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO 'HOLINESS' IN HOLY SPIRIT?

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


That which makes Christianity unique in religious faith is its accent on holiness. God has said for His children to be holy as He is holy.


Further, God has made His Holy Spirit available as the resource by which a damaged mortal can live out the holy life.


In addition, God has provided ample counsel in His eternal Word regarding the practics of the holy witness.


Yet the Christian Church has been remiss in regard to this challenge of the holy life. Why? Chiefly because in our entertainment-crazed era the church has been enamored with its own pleasure.


However, according to the Bible, our chief pleasure as believers is to be about God's pleasure. It is to be whatever makes God happy. Obviously that which makes God most happy is His children being obedient to His moment-by-moment plan. That is, in simple definition, Christian holiness.


In the last several decades much has been made over the Holy Spirit. His name has been evoked for our own protection and pleasure, to bless us, to heal us, to encourage us. All that is fine. But with that emphasis on what God can do for us by way of His Spirit, there is an urgent need to balance out the matter. We need to ask ourselves daily what we can do to evoke indwelling power by which to live the holy life before God.


Of course, with the spiritually fallen human, it is most difficult to achieve balance in anything earthly. Our problem is continually tilting too much in one direction or another.


Once realizing this malady, the earnest believer then corrects the matter by retraining his allegiance. Instead of seeking self-pleasure from the Spirit, one
then seeks service-to-God empowered by the Spirit.


How can I do the work of Jesus today more effectively because of the Spirit's holiness upon my soul?


How can I be kinder and more sympathetic because of the Spirit's indwelling holy presence?


How can I become more humble, more meek and pliable to the Lord's will, because of the Spirit's housing within my spirit?


How can I experience the Spirit's baptism, not for self-anything, but for God-everything?


One can prostitute the baptism of the Holy Spirit just as surely as was sought by some in the Early Church. There were those who wanted the Spirit to further their own agendas. That can occur in any age. But the Spirit will not honor that motive.


Much of today's soft underbelly in the church is due to motives that are carnal while at the same time praying for the Spirit. Such a contradiction cannot stand up before God's eternal throne. God's integrity will not tolerate a tawdry motive that is basically self-centered.


The church will retrieve its Early Church gusto when it cleans its own motive house. That is accomplished when pulpits preach the balanced perspective regarding the Spirit's holiness. That is practiced when the pew puts into operation such a balance.


Whatever happened to "holiness" in the Holy Spirit?


The answer is to be found in motive--intention. The church has tended to "use" the Spirit of God for the church's own earthly purposes instead of the holy life inhabiting every believer.


When holiness returns as the ultimate goal of the believer's prayer, then the Spirit will gladly respond with His agenda--holiness lived out in an evil world. Then believers will become the saltiness God intended. Then believers will shine as heaven's light as God has wished.


Holiness is the chief purpose of our being here in this life. Holiness is the primary desire of the divine in equipping His offspring for gospel good. Then holiness preached and taught should be the continued accent when gathering for worship.

A VERY SPECIAL GIFT—THE HOLY DAY

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


The good God said one day, "I want to give my children a very special gift. It will help them, refresh them, make them happy, lift their burdens and give them a new turn on life."


So the good God set about to craft it. He was thinking of His children's good. He always is.


Even when the good God set before His children a commandment or two, it was always for their good. They did not always get that message. Nevertheless, when they did get that truth, they were set free.


So it was with this very special gift from the good God.


"I want them to put down their weights. I want them to unwind. I want them to go run in the meadows, jump across streams, forget their toil. I want them to be holy, yes, but I want them to understand more than anything else how such holiness unfolds happiness."


This good God timed His gift so that it would keep returning over and over again, never stopping, as long as earth spun upon its axis. How good of the good God! How pouring-out in His fatherly love for The Precious.


"This gift will long be remembered. Oh, how it makes my own heart glad to offer this present to my redeemed ones.


"Those who have rejected me cannot understand the worth of this gift. But surely my own dear ones will treasure it, hold it delicately and never neglect it. Oh, how it makes my own heart glad!"


How grateful would be the children of the good God. They had such an insightful Parent--looking out for their every benefit.


"I want even their children to inherit this gift. I want all generations to revel in its joy and gladness. How I want the whole world to receive this present. But I know that the whole world will not take to its value.


"Therefore, I must count on my children. I simply must. They surely will hold this jewel to their hearts. Yes, they will will it to THEIR offspring. And so its meaning will bead itself down through centuries of laughter and thanksgiving."


With this, the good God planned it. Is it not always more blessed to give than to receive? So it is with the One who wrote that postulate into being's fabric. HE was almost beside Himself with such holy hilarity.


Recall how you, parents, prepare those dazzling prizes for your own children? You ponder. You purchase. You wrap. You tie the bows. Then you can hardly wait for The Moment!


So it was with the good God.


"This will calm their nerves in rest. My gift will bind their wounds. This present will return them to my love, to worship me fully, to adore my holiness, to share my gift with other redeemed sons and daughters. This gift will draw their families closer. This gift will show to the world that these offspring are different because of their beauty."


The good God, being Creator of His children, knew truly what they needed to make it through each rough-and-tumble week. He knew that they would need to drop everything--hear His music, paint the sky, romp the fields and take in lazy hills. How they would need it!


With that gift, they would enter the very holy of holies, lay their eyes upon His mercy seat, cleanse their souls afresh in shekinah glory, marvel at the cherubim's wings. They would light their lives from golden lampstands, nourish at the shewbread table and mix their thanksgivings with incense from His sanctified altar.


So it was that His smile filled up the all of heaven. Then it was that that smile dipped down to planet earth as the good God lifted high His holy gift for every angel to see!


Think of it: to be the child of such a benevolent Father! So sad for those who cared not for the Father, those twisted in their trenches, vagabonds of their own shriveled spheres, crippling through.


Yet to be the graced child of such a sensitive One! What utter security when leaning upon His sure shoulder.


This Father actually meant for His birthed to pace life in peace. Knowing that His planet had fallen into unbelievable tension, the good God gifted His children with His own unique respite from staccatoed stress.


That very special--holy--gift!


Ah, now was The Moment. Offer it, then, good God. Your offspring of mercy are waiting anxiously. They will surely take hold of it in cascading praise--forever!


As eternity held its breath and nary an angel whispered a sigh, into the hands of His own He gently laid that shining treasure--His Day of Rest.

US YOUTH = OBAMA’S MILITARY CORPS

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


“Obama threw civil liberties to the wind when he proposed ‘a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded
as the regular military” per DCExaminer.com


There you have it.


Are we imagining the next generation under the thumb of the present-Oval Office celeb pushed there via mob hysteria?


Are we bonkers when concluding that Hitler has returned in the guise of a “Christian” belonging to the United Church of Christ when all the while he is a Marxist Muslim?


Are we loyal members of the traditional American Republic unpatriotic by pointing out that what we have known as “America” is pushed aside for an authoritarian rule by none other than B. H. O. and cadre?


No.


We are the sane ones who see into the future a country that is alien to what we have grown up in. However, if the next generation continues to be brainwashed by B. H. O., they will know nothing different. Then their children surely will know nothing different.


What is going to make the change over from authoritarian to democracy recovered? It is God.


That is why biblical believers present-tense join with the original believing settlers to pray to the Almighty for His rule to spread throughout this nation.


It can be done. God is God. The planet is His. This
nation was founded on God and the Bible’s mortal base. It was not founded on Islam or atheism.


Therefore, all the more moralists must intercede on behalf of America—particularly the youth of this country who have been swept up in this hysteria. They are impressionable by “change” and “hope.” They by nature of their age are idealists. And so they are given to this charismatic horse in the White House.


Prayer is power. Prayer, other than the blood of Christ, is the most powerful force on this globe. It reaches to the very throne in eternity. It is delivered by the Holy Spirit to our Advocate Christ who hands it to the Father.


The entire Trinity is involved in our prayers for America. God will answer. God will install His plan. God is God. Then pray and have faith in God to do what God does on behalf of our Republic.


Read Expanded Americorps has an authoritarian feel at http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/Expanded-Americorps-has-an-authoritarian-feel-41889742.html


CHRIST CREATED ALL THINGS

Psalm 24:1
Psalm 33:6,9
Proverbs 3:19
John 1:1-3,14
I Corinthians 8:6
Ephesians 1:10; 3:9
Colossians 1:16
Hebrews 1:1-2

CHRIST CONTAINS ALL THINGS

I Corinthians 8:6
“through whom we exist”
Colossians 1:15-17
“in Him all things hold together”

CHRIST CLIMAXES ALL THINGS

Ephesians 1:10
“will unite all things in Christ”
Philippians 3:21
“subdue all things unto himself”
Matthew 28:18-20
“all power is given unto Me”

I LOST 40 LBS IN 40 DAYS

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


Bottom line: I lost weight due to cleansing the body of toxins, eating and drinking only organic / all natural, and the nasal spray HCG.


This wellness plan has nothing to do with discipline or will power. It has all to do with focusing on organic / all natural intakes and following the HCG-centered wellness plan via my naturopathic doctor.


HCG is human chorionic gonadotropin, a prescription via doctor.


There are 4 phases to this wellness plan.


Phase 1, 3 weeks duration, cleanses the body of its junk—toxins—all too familiar to North American unhealthy eating.


Phase 1 is based on organic / all natural intakes only. It is also drinking l/2 to 1 gallon of bottled water / day. The wellness plan food specifics are provided by the doctor (see 3rd to last paragraph). Phase 1 includes organic teas. It focuses on 6 small meals / day plus supplements via the doctor.


Take 2 half-hour walks / day throughout all phases.


Phase 1 accents cleansing toxins, not weight loss; however, I lost 7 pounds during that time frame. The doctor says most people lose 4-6 pounds in Phase 1.


After Phase 1, gorge for 2 days. This is not optional. Eat do-nuts, banana splits, pizza, that is, high calorie foods. Why? To fill up the body’s food pantries for the next 40 days of 500 calories intake / day.


Phase 2 starts the 40 days of losing a pound a day. First thing in the morning, empty bladder, weigh in naked, then use HCG nasal spray. Mark down each day’s date and weight. In Phase 2, HCG triggers the hypothalamus to reset body settings to good health.


Eat organic / all natural only, including bottled water. Eat 4-ounce lunch and supper intakes of chicken, turkey, haddock, flounder, halibut, sole, tilapia, cod, shrimp, grass-fed beef or veal. Eat salads. Eat for fruits apples, strawberries and grapefruits as mid-morning, mid-afternoon and evening snack meals. Drink organic teas, including Smooth Move Tea to facilitate regular bowel movements. Remember: all organic / all natural intakes only.


At the close of 40 days, no more HCG nasal spray.


Phase 3, 3 weeks duration, is “lock-in” when I locked in the weight loss and body settings reset by HCG during the 40 days. In Phase 2, HCG triggers the hypothalamus to reset body settings to good health. Phase 3 is putting into place that new good health.


Phase 4 is for the rest of my life—eating 80 % organic / all natural while eating 20% conventional, that is, “cheating” or allowing toxins.


This wellness plan has gifted me at age 69 with depression lifted, increased energy and clarity of thought.


I turned 70 on January 4, 2009, and feel super with the new weight loss and amazing health gifts. I now look forward to this next decade. It is an answer to pray, truly.


For more data, contact Dr. Ferderic Shotz, ND, Naturopathic Medicine, 222 Auburn Street, Portland ME 04103, 207 828 4299, drshotz@maineintegrativewellness.com


For more on HCG, check here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_chorionic_gonadotropin


This is my personal, non-professional account and I am not legally held responsible for any detail.

I LOVE IT ‘CAUSE JESUS IS IN CHARGE

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


Monday was hand surgery day for Priscilla, my wife.


Several days prior she had been sick with the flu. Fill in the blanks. But Monday she was well enough to have the cut-through.


However, waking up Monday for me was not fun. I now had the no-energy-at-all. Yet I was to drive her to and from the hospital. After all.


I literally dragged to the van, turned the key and hoped to stay put on the frost heaves of River Road.


By the time we got to the hospital, Priscilla went off to see the surgeon. I waited in the state-of-the-art reception solarium.


I was handed what appeared to be a type of remote which would wiggle and tickle when it was time for me to visit Priscilla through those awesome closed doors that signed AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL
ONLY.


I said to the receptionist: “I am sick. I really have no strength even to sit up in a chair.”


She pointed to another reception area off the main section. “Go in there. It’s quiet. Put some chairs together and lie down.”


I waddled right in there, laid the “remote” at the top of my head on a little table, and didn’t care what came next.


There were already four comfortable chairs lined up in a straight cot-like shape. I stretched out upon them all, my jacket thrown over me. In no time, lights out.


After a time frame I know nothing about, security fellow Charlie said, “Now, Mr. Swank, take your time. But your wife is waiting for you back in the surgery unit.”


Slowly, very slowly, I pried myself into vertical, handed Charlie the “remote,” then followed him through the ONLY doors.


At the end of the long, long hall was the cubicle housing Priscilla. Thankfully, the hospital with its most accommodating provisions, had a lazy-boy chair for the visitor-with-patient. I made swift use of the chair, tilted back and closed my eyes.


It took an hour for all the finals to be carried out by a couple of nurses and attendants, then
the surgeon—a young fellow, most kind and gracious—closed things out.


“You can bring your vehicle up to the side entrance,” the nurse instructed me.


I slowly walked down to those automated doors, walked across the parking lot, opened the van door and turned the key. Presently, Priscilla and nurse positioned her in the passenger’s side.


It was now mid-day. I dared not put anything in my stomach because of you-know-why. Yet the strength was not upping.


Nevertheless, I was the designated driver. So home we went, Priscilla talking about meds for pain and my head gradually focusing on what was really important.


I collapsed on the couch, losing contact with the world through the few hours beckoning. When awakening, Priscilla said, “You know, I’m going to have to go back to the hospital because the nurse left a needle in my arm.”


Sure enough. The nurse had forgotten to take the “port”—is that what it’s called; I have no idea about medical terminology? Anyhow, it’s the needle that’s
put into the flesh by which more whatevers can be added to the body for this and that.


Yes, it was there all right. And it could not stay. Infection and so forth.


“I don’t know if I can drive into the city. The hospital. It seems so far away,” I replied, unthinkingly, for who else was going to do it?


Back in the car. Night had fallen. I felt wretched. Priscilla was dealing with pain-after-hand-surgery.


We got to Mercy Hospital Emergency Room, checked in with the receptionist and so on and so on.


Priscilla disappeared into the inner sanctum where professionals could take care of the “port” that should have never been left in her arm.


To my right there sat a handsome young fellow who started to explain to me that my wife could have been taken to the local fire department where a medic would have extracted the object without us having to do what we did.


From that subject, we moved to his subject—which was that he suffers from diabetes, has an esophagus problem by which he cannot eat anything but apple sauce diluted with water.


“I’m losing weight. I have gone down from 225 to 155. The doctors don’t know what to do with me. I’ve been to the Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. They don’t know what to do with me. I can’t keep losing weight. Yet when I eat anything, even jello or soup, it comes right up. I hope I don’t have to have a tube inserted in my side. I don’t want this to turn into cancer.”


More detail. And more detail.


Being a Christian, I listened and empathized. I genuinely cared and he knew it.


He told me about his parents who are divorced. “My mother has had one heart attack. I don’t want her to have another from worrying about me so I try to keep all this from her as much as possible.”


He spilled out specific after specific. In other words, he needed a listening ear. I was it.


Interestingly enough, I was not feeling weak any longer. I felt full strength and was wide-awake.


Then there came out this detail from Jeremy: “My mother is strict when it comes to religion.”


I asked him what church she goes to.


He replied with the name of the sanctuary. “I know where that is. And I believe what your mother believes. You don’t know it, but you have been talking with a minister.”


He looked startled—but pleased.


In short, I continued to talk to him about God, the biblical promises, and the power of prayers. The bottom line: I witnessed to him about Jesus. He was
most receptive and thankful.


“Be certain that we will continue to pray for you though we may never meet again.” With that, I handed him my pastor’s card with name, address, etc.


As Priscilla and I drove home at 10:30 PM, passing through a quiet city and then into our own village, I thought back over the belabored day.


Such joy filled my heart.


Jesus was in charge. And how many times has this same sequence played out in my life over and over again: problems, difficulties, barriers, slumps and then—surprise—the hand of God in-my-face?


“Thank you, Jesus, for overruling today. The nurse forgot the “port”? We had to go back to another hospital because it was merely a nuisance?


That’s life. It’s a damaged world.


Yet Jesus has promised in the consecrated life to use everything “according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28. Recall?


Pray for Jeremy, will you? Pray for Jeremy. It was such a privilege to have met him. He certainly is one hunk who could use a lot of saving grace and a healing miracle besides.


Thank you, Jesus. I know you know and are in charge.


Now as to the state of the present-tense world. . .

LIBERALS OUT TO BANKRUPT SARAH PALIN

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


Per The American Thinker’s Bob Teter at The Campaign To Break Sarah Palin:


“A stellar example of why we need ‘loser pays’ in our court proceedings.


“From Michael A. Knight's blog at Red State:


“From just September till now, Sarah Palin has accumulated a personal dept of over $500,000 in legal fees defending herself against fake/false/frivolous ethics charges. That's Five Hundred Thousand Dollars.


“A group of Alaska liberals, with the apparent cooperation of members of the Alaska Democratic Party have been filing ethics charge after ethics charge against Sarah Palin.


“The aim? Not to get her impeached and booted from office, because every single one of the charges are frivolous, baseless and even fairly deranged - one was even filed in the name of a soap opera character - but something far more personal.


“These people want to bankrupt the Palins and leave them destitute. They want to empty their bank accounts so that they cannot afford the basics and necessities of life after Governor Palin leaves office.”


Need more be said?


Pray.


Read American Thinker at http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/03/the_campaign_to_break_sarah_pa.html


Read Red State at http://www.redstate.com/martin_a_knight/2009/03/24/the-campaign-to-bankrupt-the-palin-family/

PLANNED PARENTHOOD: KILL UR BABE AT HOME

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


Surgical abortions decreased.


Now PP has given females drugs to kill their infants at home.


Some female deaths have resulted because of course PP doesn’t have it altogether.


So now the American home has become the real-life real-time abortuary. The mother is really the hands-on killer. So the Republic falls more quickly, more horrifically.


PP wiggles every demon in place to do whatever is necessary in order to further its death trade. Of course, death-bound Dems and death-vowed B. H. Obama, Marxist Muslim, up the ante.


The Bible reveals that God abhors killing womb infants. Repeatedly, God states that human life must be preserved.


The lesson of Abraham offering son Isaac, then that stayed by God’s angel, set aside Abraham’s line from killing their own. Surrounding heathen areas killed their children. Abraham, father of the faithful, was to set the example for the righteous evermore.


Christians are now the spiritual children of Abraham. Therefore, every Christian must abhor slaughtering the innocent womb babies.


Though Obama claims to be “Christian,” he is pagan murderer along with the other liberal pro-abortionists.


In his press conference, Obama stated the nation’s woes; however, he never once referred to the 24 / 7 country’s murdering of its own unborn children.


Biblical believers never give up their chant for life. They have been maligned and spat upon, ridiculed and derided, but they know that goes with the territory. They represent Christ who was hated,
warning His own they would likewise be hated.


Therefore, the campaign for life everywhere goes forward, regardless of the enemies who march their death banners far and wide.


Read “Planned Parenthood 'changing focus' to medical abortions” at http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=463438


FOORNOTE: THE BIBLE AND ABORTION


It is alarming to realize the nonchalance on the part of many concerning abortion. But it is not new. A popular newsmagazine quoted one medical opinion: "Abortion is finding its place as a perfectly acceptable and valid health measure. We no longer think of it as a crime."


There are those who say that every woman has a right to control her own body. That is true. Then, having control over her own body, she should not become pregnant if she does not want children. That is control! When she becomes pregnant, then she has lost her control over that situation.


But more importantly, only God has final rights to any person's body. He brought that body into life and someday will take that body out of life. In the meantime He provides the very sustaining power for the body's life to continue.


The Bible speaks of a fetus as a person, not simply tissue that can be discarded if found to be a bother or nuisance. Since the fetus is a person from the moment of conception, then the destroying of the fetus is killing a person.


“In the past, some people have mistakenly speculated that perhaps the body might be in the process of formation for some time, and then 'God breathes a soul into it.' They had it backward. The life that is present forms matter into a body for itself'” (Joseph Breig, "Life Forms Matter," The Catholic News, Jan. 24, 1974, p. 8).


"Your hands shaped me and made me. Will you now turn and destroy me? Remember that you molded me like clay. Will you now turn me to dust again? Did you not pour me out like milk ... and knit me together with bones and sinews? You gave me life and showed me kindness, and in your providence watched over my spirit" (Job 10:8-12 NIV).


"Before I was born the LORD called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name...and now the LORD says--he who formed me in the womb to be his servant..." (Isaiah 49:1, 5).


"The word of the LORD came to me, saying, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations’" (Jeremiah 1:4-5).


In the following passages we note that personality is ascribed to the unborn.


"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that fully well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be" (Psalm 139:13-16).


"Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him" (Psalm 127:3).


Exodus 21:22-25 relates how Israel was to judge a circumstance relating to the death of the unborn:


"If men who are fighting hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman's husband demands and the court allows. But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, wound for wound, bruise for bruise."


All of the latter deals with unintentional hurt that comes to a pregnant woman; how much more will divine penalty come upon those who intentionally discard the fetus? The Gospel of Luke ascribes personality to the fetus within Elizabeth:


"When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit... As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy" (1:41, 44).


Mere tissue does not leap for joy; only personhood leaps for joy. The Bible regards the fetus as having personality. In Galatians, Paul speaks of himself as a person while still in his mother's womb, but more a person consecrated by God for a holy mission (compare Jeremiah 1:5 for the same accent):


"But when God, who set me apart from birth, and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles..." (Gal. 1: 15-16).


Since the Bible regards the fetus as personality, then the aborting of the fetus is murdering personality.


Some verses from Scripture dealing with murder are then appropriate for study, such as Genesis 9:6: "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man." Also, read Exodus 23:7: "Have nothing to do with a false charge, and do not put an innocent or honest person to death, for I will not acquit the guilty." Note I Peter 4:15: "If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer..."


If the Republic returned to the biblical definition of personhood, we would defend every womb child.


John Adams said the following:


"Our Constitution was made only for a religious and moral people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other."


Andrew Jackson said the following:


"The BIBLE is the rock on which our Republic rests."


Daniel Webster:


"If we abide by the principles taught in the BIBLE, our country will go on prospering."


"For all the talk of freedom and self-determination, the abortion movement is at its heart a movement denying rights to a silent segment of humanity and soliciting public sanction, support and subsidy to its own cause" (Donald P. Shoemaker, ABORTION, THE BIBLE AND THE CHRISTIAN, Hayes Publishing Co., 1976, p. iv).

HO-HUM OBAMA PREZ CONF

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


“At the same time, the rest of us can't afford to demonize every investor or entrepreneur who seeks to make a profit. That drive is what has always fueled our prosperity, and it is what will ultimately get these banks lending and our economy moving once more,” B. H. Obama said.


So where’s that leave us? Between a rock and a hard place. You choose who’s the rock and who’s the hard place.


I personally don’t trust a one of them. Nix. Over and out. Got my mutual funds check last week, little that it was. Should have asked for it months ago.


Obama’s press confab was so utterly ho-hum that most of us begged to switch the channel. Many did. For those who stayed on, it was a rigorous ordeal.


Obama mentioned the Wall Street crooks. But did you note that when he said he was angry, he surely did not look it.


So goes the Obama mob hysteria mantra of “hope” and “change” with no substance in between the bread-slices-for-a-sandwich.


The Boy is there. And that’s it, people. The Boy.


No wonder in an interview recently he was asked if he was punch drunk. He laughed. The interview was dead serious. B. H. Obama, Marxist Muslim, laughed.


That’s what I mean. He not only laughs while America burns, he entertains “names” in the White House nights to after midnight parties. Michelle warns them not to mess up the property.


Now that’s leadership. Right?


When squeezed for presidential action, this is what he came up with: “Obama cited the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's handling of the IndyMac Bank as an example of government properly using its authority.


“The government did something right? That's news to most Americans,” per AP’s Ron Fournie.


And so forth.


The teleprompter didn’t do much to up the spiz.


Ho-hum. Another day in the pits.

IS GOD ANSWERING PRAYER FOR IRAQ?

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


“’I am just optimistic, and I think we are on the right path,’ said Hiba Aal-Jassin, a dental student.


“There are dramatic numbers to backup this sentiment. A new ABC News poll finds 65 percent of Iraqis feel positive about their lives. So much so, that from the port city of Basra in the south, to Karbala in the heartland, there are signs of new life everywhere.


“The streets, the markets, the restaurants, they are all bustling with people. some Iraqis in Baghdad have even taken up new hobbies like car racing.


“’It is all new,’ said Luay al-Ameer. ‘It is nice.’”


Many Americans prayed earnestly for a democracy build in Iraq after the fiendish despot was dethroned. Is democracy now blossoming where Islamic demonism once pitted?


Per George Thomas,CBN News Senior Reporter, there is real hope. Six years have passed since the US moved into Iraq to rid the place of Saddam Hussein.


Six years. Can one imagine that the years have flown by so quickly? Yet they have and change has moved in for the better.


Where once soccer stadiums were used primarily for Muslim males to shoot bullets into women’s heads to decree “honor killing,” soccer stadiums are now used mainly for legitimate sport.


“Tens of thousands of fans feel safe to gather for soccer matches. Security is a big factor in all this. 84 percent of Iraqis say the security conditions are good. The number is double what it was in 2007.


“’We feel safe and it is much better than last year,’ said one Iraqi.”


Instead of the sharia Islamic maddening so-called rule of justice and legality, locals praise democracy.


People are talking about planting their flower and vegetable gardens. Children are tossing balls in the streets. Markets are selling their produce.


Instead of Hussein’s lusty sons picking up pretty women on the streets at night, taking them to rape rooms, then killing them before dawn, Iraqis try to forget the raunchy Hussein who played righteous while slaughtering his own.


Even Hussein’s relatives feared for their daughters. Hussein would have lavish parties in his palaces. Relatives were invited. However, before daylight a young girl or two or three could be missing forever. Hussein and sons thought nothing of taking his own clan females for sex and then murder.


No more Hussein cages where Iraqi men were stashed in the village square.


No more Hussein police stealing fathers from their houses, hauling them into the night and then stashing them into death holes.


No more Hussein interviews with Dan Rather, Hussein talking like Billy Graham when referring to his religious holiness, his spiritual teaching provided his sons and his allegiance to the holy writ.


No more Hussein pushing mortals into shredding machines.


No more Hussein lauding Islam’s Koran while seeing through its most bloody verses.


No more Hussein chopping off hands and feet.


Will the next generation in Iraq know true freedoms
so as to never know the horror their ancestors endured?


CWN states: “Violence has significantly dropped in the region, and for the first time, Iraqis are more concerned about the economy than security.


“It is an unfamiliar sight in Baghdad as race fans watch race cars zoom by on a track. Meanwhile, a local market is packed with shoppers looking for good deals.


“Six years after the U.S. invasion, Iraqis across the country are for the first time, in a long time, hopeful about their future.


“’Democracy is the only solution for Iraq,’ said one Iraqi.”


Read “Change Marks Iraq War's Sixth Anniversary” at http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/563483.aspx

NOTRE DAME ‘NO’ TO OBAMA

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


There is no reason or moral base for Notre Dame to invite B. H. Obama to address any audience on that campus.


Those protesting are urging persons to contact Fr John Jenkins, President, Notre Dame, telling him to cancel the invitation. Obama does not belong on that campus in South Bend, Indiana.


Christians are urged to call him at 574.631.5000, fax him at 574.631.2770, write a personal email president@nd.edu, or mail your letter to 317 Main Building, Notre Dame, IN 46556


“Help Stop the Scandal at Our Lady’s Unviersity” is how the appeals goes forth at “Take Action Now” at
http://notredamescandal.com/


The petition reads:


“It is an outrage and a scandal that "Our Lady’s University," one of the premier Catholic universities in the United States, would bestow such an honor on President Obama given his clear support for policies and laws that directly contradict fundamental Catholic teachings on life and marriage.


“This nation has many thousands of accomplished leaders in the Catholic Church, in business, in law, in education, in politics, in medicine, in social services, and in many other fields who would be far more appropriate choices to receive such an honor from the University of Notre Dame.


“Instead Notre Dame has chosen prestige over principles, popularity over morality. Whatever may be President Obama’s admirable qualities, this honor comes on the heels of some of the most anti-life actions of any American president, including expanding federal funding for abortions and inviting taxpayer-funded research on stem cells from human embryos.”


Scores of Protestants would endorse this petition.


Obama who espouses killing womb babies and human stem cell research as well as sodomy blessed as “marriage” should never appear before any group upholding biblical ethics.


Obama, Marxist Muslim, should be shunned by all moralists throughout the world, not only in America.


He is ruining the United States with his immoral
stances as well as his future policies which will nullify the Christian heritage to America as well as mesh together all religions as one.


While proclaiming to be “Christian,” he is Muslim. There is much evidence to that conclusion.


In addition, no biblical believer who wears the label “Christian” goes against the Word of God which abhors sodomy and abortion.


Obama, the left of the left, was put into office via mob hysteria and an archliberal media. Now America, rather than being enlightened and enhanced, is being destroyed by Obama and the low-lifes he has gathered around him as “officials.”


Sign the Notre Dame petition here: http://notredamescandal.com/


Believers at Notre Dame are stating: “We prayerfully implore you, the President of Notre Dame, to halt this travesty immediately.


“We do so with the hope that Catholics nationwide will likewise call on you to uphold the sacred mission of your Catholic University. May God grant you the courage and wisdom to do what is right.”

THE CROSS. . .BAPTIZED INTO HIS DEATH

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


". . .baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?" Romans 6:3


What does it mean to be baptized into Jesus, being baptized into his death?


Baptism and death. They are coupled together in holy writ. It is a mystery. It is also our hope.


As Jesus Christ gave Himself every minute to the Father agenda, so Jesus died out to His own zeal. He was human, as we are human; therefore, He was tempted in all areas like as we. But He did not sin. He did not yield to the allurements of self-governance.


Jesus made certain that at every turn--especially when applauded by the masses for miracle producing--that He did not permit Himself to be fooled. He refused the forbidden fruit. He would not bite into that which was hanging on the forever tree in the center of the world's garden. His mission instead was to reverse the disobedience of Adam and Eve by remaining obedient to the Father's directives.


Jesus was then baptized into the final breath by remaining true to Father's redemptive plan, not permitting this holy scheme to be compromised even
under the most grueling of circumstances.


Jesus allowed His very being to be baptized into a sanctified plot outside Himself. He would know nothing until it was revealed to Him. He would suspend His own knowledge of anything until He was signaled by the Father. Then He acted. He then did perform the Father's bidding--on time, just as directed.


This same Jesus has become our Model. He invites us to be baptized into the death to our own zeal.


How many within the courts of religion are overcome with their own zeal? Their energy drives are at fever pitch daily. For what? For the praises. They even hunger for audience approval in the name of Jesus Christ. They have become accustomed, even addicted, to this explosive feeling of ego achievement.


Such is anathema. It is heresy. It is sinful. It is like unto the Pharisees. The mature cross bearer cannot countenance it for a second.


The purpose of the cross is to teach this lesson of zeal submission.


It is the spiritual leadership in particular who must come upon this truth for they are responsible in great measure for the purity or impurity of instruction provided those under their tutelage.


Consequently, spiritual leadership must scour their motives to make certain that death to personal drive is real, that they have been baptized truly into the death of Christ in order to know His holiness in life.


"Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life."


“. . .newness of life”!


God has already proven Himself two thousand years ago. Death was followed with life. Jesus was there to reveal it. Disciples saw and handled it. They ate with Him, walked and talked with Him.


Life! "I am the. . .the Life."

I BELIEVE IN MIRACLES: GOD PROVISIONS

J. Grant Swank, Jr.

I had pastored a denominational church (Church of the Nazarene) since 1964 when in 1998 I was ousted by ecclesiastical political conniving.

In 1992, I attended a pastors’ and wives’ Christmas dinner sponsored by the district. Unbeknownst to me, another minister told the district superintendent that I had said we had to get rid of the superintendent. I never said that. But the superintendent believed the lie.

From that day onward, the superintendent tried to oust me from my Maine pastorate. That’s the power of a lie.

I had ministered from west to east over years in the denomination in which I had been born on January 4, 1939: Calgary, Alberta; Kansas City, Missouri; Manchester, Connecticut; Indianapolis, Indiana; Fishkill, New York; Akron, Ohio; Walpole, Massachusetts and then Maine.

I had pastored not only in the denomination in which I had been ordained in the ‘60s, but also in the Methodist Church, Nevada, Indiana; United Church of Christ (Congregational), Broad Brook, Connecticut; and St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church, High Point, North Carolina.

Now I was without a congregation, parsonage, health coverage, and salary. On that August Sunday evening, the superintendent who followed the one who believed the lie walked into my house unannounced. He was accompanied by a district advisory board. I had been conducting a prayer meeting in our parsonage living room when the interruption came.

In any church, there are troublemakers. Ask any pastor of any denomination. Sometimes those troublemakers mass themselves into a political block to oust the pastor. That’s what happened in my case. The block went to the second superintendent who had believed the 1992 lie. That brought the superintendent to my home with his back-ups.

You see, the first superintendent, Clarence Hildreth, District Superintendent, Maine District, Church of the Nazarene, who believed the lie moved on to another position out of state. The one who followed him, Roland Dunlop, had it in for me because I would not support him in a mean move. A couple from my church planning their wedding ceremony wanted to use his city sanctuary for it was larger than our village sanctuary. The superintendent, then pastor of the city church, told me that he was going to charge the couple $400 for the use of his facility. He wanted me to endorse that.

I told him that I could not do that. It was unfair to the couple who had little money. He countered by stating in no uncertain terms that I would indeed back him up. I told him that I could not ethically do that. With that, we came to an impasse. With that, he held it against me till he became superintendent.

With the troublemakers in my local congregation going to him with their manufactured grievances, he then unreasonably concluded he had leverage by which to oust me. So he did, with the help of his advisory board — clones of the superintendent. Politics works its devilment not only among the ecclesiastical clergy but the laymen who side in with the dark political mode.

Ungodly politics also works its way from grassroots to headquarters levels. Prior to all this Maine district devilment, one of the five books I authored was entitled ONE CHRISTMAS I MET AN ANGEL, published by Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City, the denominational publishing house for the Church of the Nazarene. When Dunlop ousted me, the headquarters threw away 2000 remaining copies of my book. Just threw them away.

When my friends phoned Kansas City to get copies for that Christmas they were told that the book was no longer available. The man in charge, I have since forgotten his name, is probably still alive. May God have mercy on his soul.

On that Sunday evening of being ousted, with the enemy having left my living room, I and the parishioners there for a prayer meeting concluded by organizing our own independent, evangelical congregation. We would meet in our homes since our church building had just been taken away from us. We would dispense with annual elections, committees, boards, membership, newsletters, bulletins and all the trappings of the denominational organization.

However, I was in shock. Within 30 days, I had to vacate my home. I had no place to go. In 30 days, I would be absent my health coverage, salary and roof over my head.

My wife recalled a humble summer camp community not too far away. She phoned to discover that there was an old trailer there that we could move in to.

We stored our belongings in various parishioners’ homes — attics, basements, garages, sheds. In fact, one house ended up with our piano in the owners' living room. Other homes housed our rocking chairs, straight-back chairs and end tables. My pastor's study library is still stored in boxes in a friend's backyard shed.

My wife and I went to substitute teach. On that meager salary total we survived. But emotionally I crumbled.

The trailer interior was dark paneling. I dreaded evening and nighttime. The quarters were cramped. Winter snowstorms howled around our windows, sometimes creeping in around the edges. Our front door screen was broken down. We seemed to be out in the middle of Maine's nowhere. That went on for months.

I woke up mornings anxious to get into a classroom for in those environs there was light and movement and people and chatter and something to do with my brain. But in mid-afternoon when leaving the schools, I felt a suffocating, crawling dread crippling my body and soul. It was beyond description.

God seemed far far away.

One day my brother-in-law was visiting us. We walked down near the lake to come upon an aged, worn cabin. It had a simple porch. The only door was unlocked so we walked inside. There was a living room, kitchenette, two bedrooms and a bath. Though covered with cobwebs, that rickety cabin looked like a dream house to me. I said, “You know, if God would only provide the two of us with a dwelling like this, I could call it ‘home’.”

But that of course was impossible.

Several months later we were visiting with Christians in Standish, Maine. Our hostess said, “I think a couple we know has a rental available.” I asked for the number, got it, and called. The next evening we were walking into the rental. And we got it. Our landlords happened to be believers, now new friends to us.

The layout of the rental: a small porch, living room, kitchenette, two bedrooms and a bath.

Today I still walk around this cottage by Lake Sebago where we live. I call it a house with seven rooms, but four of them are invisible. I like the number “7” because it’s the divine number of perfection.

I look out my living room windows every day and night to see God’s nature wonder all around me. Three large windows make up one of the living room walls so that when you stand in that room it’s like standing outside.

All four seasons breathe inside as well as outside from that room. Now today I looked out to see the lake covered with ice — thick, so that ice shacks are planted atop it. I see snow mounded all over everywhere, sporting limbs laden with white coverlets.

I just love this place. It’s where we live. It’s where our house church meets three times every week for worship. It’s where I thank God for miracles.

Now if that’s not enough, we also have a beautiful, cozy country home in Kennetcook, Nova Scotia. Our neighbor there across the meadow calls our place “an estate.” I think that’s a bit overmuch, but I’ve never corrected her. You see, if I did, that would not be fair to my godly mother-in-law who willed the property to us. After all, she made it the “estate” that it is.

It has 9 rooms, a welcoming wrap-around-front porch, those tall old-fashioned windows, a sun porch and plenty of acreage — perfected-by-nature groomed land. There's even a creaky back screen door that makes its own off-key melody every time it's opened and shut. Plus: there's a barn with several sheds.

Down apiece, you can meander to the Kennetcook River. A tiny village of 400, a white steepled church in the middle, and a school nearby, plus a few scattered neighboring homes make up our "other home place." My in-laws called the property "Cedar Grove" because of the cedar trees all about.

That’s where I like to go when feeling “Canadian.” When “American USA” I enjoy my Windham cottage. In either cozy-down, it’s home. Besides, it’s another miracle.

Read GOD IS FAITHFUL at http://www.michnews.com/artman/publish/article_19486.shtml

CALVARY LEADS US INTO THE DIVINE HEART

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


"If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." John l5:l9

Sensitive believers are taken aback by the hatred bestowed upon them for being kind, moral and loving God. It does not make sense.

Welcome, then, to a world that does not make sense. Why then, in heaven's name, does the Christian forever seek to find full-blown heaven here? It is not here. We are spinning upon a spiritually traumatized planet. It is not balanced. It is very much off-kilter.

What the world calls love, should be hated. What the world hates should be loved. The Old Testament prophet said as much.

Therefore, basic postulate for learning from the divine mind is to get with the fundamentals: the world will hate you if you love God.

Consequently, take such hatred as a sign that you are loved by God. Further, understand that the more you are despised, the more you must truly adore Jesus.

Jesus has been quite kind in warning His own grace children ahead of time about the world's disdain for them. He has cautioned us ahead of time. Therefore, take Jesus most seriously. Do not try to pollyanna Jesus' gospel thrust. It is deadly.

Supposedly when family hates the believer it hurts the most. That is why Jesus instructed that His own must hate their mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters--family--in order to follow Him. Hatred is stated to shock the believer into realizing how seriously this whole package is to be taken. It is not a simple concept. It is a most serious concept, though not complex. Therefore, it is to be adopted personally and dealt with daily--head on.

No one can take Jesus' place--not even family. Jesus is God. God comes first or He does not fit in at all. Deity is a jealous presence; rightly so. Therefore, deity demands prime place. Give Him that and be done with it.

When that is a foundation block of your very existence, then you will wake up mornings to face the world's sneer. Live with it. Pray for that world. Go on your way rejoicing in all things. Thank Jesus that you are truly one of His or you would not be so mistreated. Later on you will have eternity to be treated rightly.

In the meantime, count yourself one of His, wearing His badge. Do you not want to be like Jesus? Then be like Him--stand up courageously and prayerfully to the hatred of those about you. He did. He prayed for them: "Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing."

Now that is taking the planet's hatred seriously.

Further, Jesus spoke to Father, stating that Jesus had given the words from Father to the disciples. The disciples had received the words.

In other words, the disciples had come to realize that Jesus was more than mortal; He was deity as well. He received "the words" from outside Himself. And His Source was heaven.

What was left to discover was whether or not the disciples then acted properly on the words they had received from Jesus who had received the words from Father. That would be the crux of the cross.

Spiritual knowledge in itself can damn. Acted upon rightly such data can bring life.

It is one matter to receive information, it is quite another matter to put it into practice.

Peter had been a disciple who had received "the word." However, in the test of the courtyard, he did not act properly upon "the word." Nor did so many of the other disciples as they hid in the caves while Jesus was put to the wall.

It is the same in every generation. There are countless souls who have the nomenclature, doctrine, wherewithal regarding verbalizing religion. That in itself can damn. It is whether or not same souls live out that knowledge. "To whom much has been given, much is required."

We start each day with the choice to listen to "the word" and then follow up with surrender or hear the word while becoming too busy to put it into the plan.

Today you have the chance to hear from the awesome God who indwells you by way of His holy presence. Not all mortals spinning upon the planet are into all that. Most are not.

The crucial question then is this: Will you take this precious information and implant it into your breakfast thoughts, then do the same on-goingly until you rest in sleep this evening?

"I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me: and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me."

Fine. Now what?

The cross carrier is forever confronted with the dark side's attempt to get doubt into the journey.

Jesus informed His own of His identity--God. They accepted that declaration as eternal mystery. Jesus knew full well that within a short time these same men would have that premise challenged. The Calvary massacre would test their postulate.

However, at the time that they stated that they got His point, Jesus then affirmed that they believed rightly: However, He did so with a question: "Do ye now believe?" In other words, things are all set up properly now; but what will it be from here on out?

So it was with cousin John. Jesus and John had grown up together. Now they were young adults in their early thirties. John had spent his young adult energy in evangelism. Jesus had just begun His messianic ministry.

In such a brief time, John's calling was cut short by being jailed. There he sat in a cell, wondering about the actual identity of cousin Jesus. Was He or wasn't He? Had John been fooled? Had the whole messianic deal been nothing other than an illusion? With a knife close to the neck, there might be an allowance for mental confusion. So it was that John's certainty began to waver--doubt about Jesus' real self.

Likewise, Jesus knew that the disciples would have their faith in Him put to the pressing point. With heartache, Jesus must have told them what He responded to John: "Do not be embarrassed by knowing Who I am, believing in Me."

So it is with each cross carrier. There will come the moment when you will be so utterly burdened by the anguish of the timber that you will cry out your own doubt. At that point, do not despair. It is one thing to doubt; it is another to despair.

In other words, back there when life was fairly on keel, you knew Him as God. To the question: "Do you NOW believe?" you shouted: "YES!" But right NOW, the knife is close to your neck and you are wobbly. It is frightening. The demons are crawling all over your brain. Nothing is working; life is imploding. NOW do you still believe that Jesus is God Almighty, in charge of all dedications, working every tiny strand for your good and the gospel furtherance?

The cross jaunt does include certain portions in which the carrier is put to the bloody wall along with Jesus on that Thursday night.

"Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me."

And so the Father is with you, too. And the Son. And the Holy Spirit. Somehow find it within your doubt to at least hold onto all that for in due time you will come to hug all that to your heart with relish. In the meantime, know you are in John's jailhouse company--and good company it is.

Hear Jesus say to you as He said to John: "Please, don't be offended by being close to Me. Sometimes this trek can get quite dangerous and uncertain to the flesh."
____________________________________________________________________

OBAMA LINKS UP WITH PASTORS?

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


B. H. Obama is trying to tell evangelicals that he has hooked up with evangelical pastors for leadership counsel.


The main supposed evangelical person he noted is Jim Wallis of Sojourners magazine.


Wallis is not evangelical. He was brought up in the biblical faith, that is, what is now known as “evangelical.”


However, Wallis has gone over to the other side while trying to mask himself as biblically sound, evangelical, conservative and whatever tag is convenient to further his own ego.


Wallis is not going to provide Obama with biblically based counsel. He is going to waffle, just as Wallis has been doing for years now. But when Wallis finishes his waffle, he falls left.


The more the decades roll, the more Wallis moves to the left. The more Sojourners gets involved in social issues, the more Wallis is aligned with liberals while still trying to convince conservatives that he represents their positions.


Not so.


Therefore, be wary when Obama tells church-going folk who love the ‘old, old story of Jesus and His love’ for he does not know what he’s talking about. That is obvious from his anti-Bible ethic, his disdain for God’s moral base and his aggressive enthusiasm for apostasy.


If Obama keeps to that course, he will be right in line with Wallis and vice versa.


Now if the President truly wants to learn from evangelical counsel he can call on the likes of Franklin Graham. He can listen to the music of Bill Gaither. And he can pray with James Dobson.


That would really bring Obama into the light of Christ, the truth of Scripture and perhaps even a personal conversion via the Holy Spirit.


After all, Obama said that he came to Christ in Trinity United Church of Christ when going forward at an “altar call.” Evidently, that was the devil’s altar for it certainly did not bring about a turn-about as the Bible defines in being born again.


Obama is excellent at playing up to evangelicals. He staged gospel concerts throughout the South during his campaign. He spoke from some Protestant pulpits, appearing to be God-fearing. He quotes Scripture when convenient. He even used the word “God” in his inaugural address, following shortly thereafter with pro-abortion signing and pro-sodomy
endorsements.


Here’s another name Obama mentioned as pastoral counsel: Otis Moss, Jr. When Moss was queried about Obama’s doctrinal position, Moss said: “I would simply say that he is a person of great faith, and I think that faith has sustained him.”


So there you have it, a clergyman who applauds Marxist Muslim Obama’s “faith.”


Fill in the blanks.

HOSPICE BY THE SEA, BOCA RATON: STILL MAKING NO SENSE IN UNDERCUTTING CHAPLAIN

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


Trying to cover their bad image they set in place, Hospice by the Sea, Boca Raton Senior Chaplain Fred Mortensen stated the following after “Veteran chaplain Mirta Signorelli resigned last month.”


This Mortensen “explanation” does nothing to make sense. It only exposes him as a theological liberal who opposes believing Chaplains such as Signorelli.


Mortensen states via Sun Sentinel.com: “The only time the issue has risen among our hospice team has been concerning all-staff meetings that do not in any way include patients or families. Chaplains, who sometimes are asked to give inspirational talks at such meetings, have been told to keep the diversity of staff members' beliefs in mind. It was a ‘suggestion — not a policy, not a directive.’”


Now let’s get this straight. If a chaplain is working at hospice and is given a “suggestion” to go easy on mentioning “God” in staff meetings, that is in reality a “policy.”


Try defining it in any other way and you are canned. Ever been there? Done that? Then you know truth.


To quibble over “suggestion” and “policy” reveals the reality that Hospice administration is desperate in attempting to weave a cover over their misstep, in fact, their cruelty against a believing Chaplain.


Further, does not the administration know that when a believing Chaplain is hired—and becomes what they themselves refer to as a “Veteran” chaplain—that means that administration expects that individual
to be honest to that person’s ethic.


A believing chaplain, of all persons, is bound to a particular moral base that includes a particular theological terminology. The fundamental of fundamentals in that terminology is the word “God.”


Any questinos?


Moreover, if there is staff in staff meetings who are atheists or agnostics or whatever, let them be mannerly enough to live alongside a believing Chaplain who uses the word “God” and “Lord” and “Jesus” in inspirational messages to staff.


If they can’t live with that, then let them quit. They can get jobs at a humanistic hospice.


Don’t put pressure on the believing Chaplain to resign, making it so uncomfortable for her that she has no choice but to resign or compromise her believing convictions.


Instead, the administration defends the unbelieving staff members against a believing “Veteran” Chaplain. That is unethical. It is unkind. It is discourteous. It should then be broadcast to the world as a cruelty leveled against a believing Chaplain, hence these posts on various global websites.


In addition, everyone knows that there are believing Chaplains and unbelieving Chaplains. There are Chaplains who are humanists—that is, persons who don’t believe in any deity. Why they are “Chaplains,” only hell knows.


Now it is evident that the hospice head Chaplain is going to the press to say that Hospice by the Sea is reasonable in what it did. The believing Chaplain has been unreasonable, he states.


Who then is this head Chaplain? He is obviously a theological liberal who is an enemy to all believing Chaplains.


There are biblical clergy. There are unbiblical clergy.


They are both referred to as “clergy.” Now the unbiblical clergy head at Hospice by the Sea is lambasting the believing Chaplain in defense of the worldly Hospice by the Sea administration.


It’s an old fight—right against wrong, godly against ungodly, biblical believing personages against the opposite.

HOSPICE BY THE SEA, BOCA RATON: X-OUT ‘GOD’

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


“The Rev. Mirta Signorelli said: ‘I can’t do chaplain’s work if I can’t say “God” — if I’m scripted.’”


There you have it.


This chaplain was told by the head of Hospice by the Sea, Boca Raton, that she cannot use the word “God” when delivering devotionals to staff. Can you imagine that?


Then what are devotions for? Inspirational messages and devotional messages from a Christian chaplain would assume that the word “God” is appropriate. Plus more.


Not so where Hospice CEO Paula Alderson is in charge. Now the CEO is trying to dance around the problem she created by saying this and that to make it appear as if the chaplain is out of bounds in her reasoning, per South Florida Sun-Sentinel.


Ever been there? Ever had to deal with that?


Then you know what’s going on now that it’s out in the media. In other words, the hospice center is getting a bad image. The CEO is appearing stupid and prejudicial against God, Christ, the Bible and any other term you want to associate with the Christian faith.


Sure there are people on staff who don’t believe in anything. So what?


If they deem to work there where a Christian chaplain is working, then let them keep quiet and show courtesy toward a chaplain who is bringing inspirational messages in staff meetings.


After all, people in the center are dying. They need God. They need salvation. They need hope. They need prayer in Jesus’ name. And that chaplain is willing to offer all those gifts.


Further, the staff needs all those gifts, particularly those who don’t believe in anything.


But the CEO obviously does not reason that way.


Ever been there? Ever had to deal with people like that? Then you know what’s going on.


Read “Chaplain at Hospice by the Sea in Boca Raton resigns over ban on word ‘God’” at http://www.sun-sentinel.com/community/news/bocaraton/sfl-flphospice0318pnmar18,0,2775865,print.story

GINGRICH ROUNDS UP US CHRISTIANS

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


Newt Gingrich harnesses evangelicals and Vatican-aligned Catholics for the good of America’s values, per US NEWS.


The former House speaker told media that he believes that hatred against Christians in particular has increased so that these biblical believers note this as their moment of truth.


This is the time for moralists to come to the fore for the good of this Christian-heritage nation. Therefore, Gingrich is doing all he can to up the believers’ voice in public forums.


“’In the last few years I've decided that we're in a crisis in which the secular state, if allowed, will fundamentally and radically change America against the wishes of most Americans,’ Gingrich said.


“’You've had such rising hostility to religious belief that I wanted to reach broadly into the country and dramatically raise public awareness of threats to religious liberty.’”


His thrust is called Renewing American Leadership. It’s got some of the most astute biblically based thinkers working alongside Gingrich. It is a professional cadre about to bring together those of like conviction at the grassroots.


“This spring, Gingrich will speak to a handful of large gatherings for politically conservative clergy that have been organized by David Barton, an influential evangelical activist who spearheaded the Republican National Committee's rigorous outreach to pastors in 2004.”


American believers know that their nation is in trouble largely due to B. H. Obama’s Marxist Muslim base. He has gathered around him low-lifes with whom he associated in Illinois. He has championed death to womb babies, death to Christian ethics, death to America’s Christian heritage, death to the biblical definition of sex, family and marriage and more.


Therefore, if biblical values are to be The American Way, leaders such as Gingrich are going to bring it about under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.


God has much at stake in America. Our original settlers were Bible-aligned. They preached and taught Bible. They held to scriptural lifestyles. They prayed to the Bible’s God.


Today their spiritual children continue to intercede before heaven’s throne.


Gingrich will gather about him these believers with a new force for good.


“A 2002 court decision that found the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools unconstitutional shifted Gingrich's attention more seriously to the debate over religion in the public square.


“The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that the pledge's ‘under God’ violated the First Amendment's ban on government-established religion.


“’That was the last straw,’ Gingrich said. ‘And I said, “It's time to challenge head-on secular domination in the West.”’”


“The crusade led Gingrich to publish Rediscovering God in America in 2006.


“Since then, Gingrich has appeared before large gatherings of pastors, joining a circuit that had been the province of politicians like Huckabee, an ordained Baptist preacher.


“’The response was overwhelmingly positive,’ says Tyler. ‘We realized there was a large segment out there that we were not reaching because a lot of Christians are just tuned out of the secular media.’”


Read “Newt Gingrich Steps Up Efforts to Mobilize Religious Conservatives” at http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/religion/2009/03/20/newt-gingrich-steps-up-efforts-to-mobilize-religious-conservatives.html