Let us learn from the parable
of the wise and foolish builders!
Luke 6:46-49
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There is a devotion below, from My Utmost, for His Highest, that deals with God’s ultimate plan and purpose for His creation; and for the sons and daughters of Adam; and to the extent we have failed to do this, and teach this to our children, our nation has suffered, and is today on the verge of collapse, from the inside out.
The question often arises in life, “What am I here for; and what is the purpose for my life?
For many the question is asked, “Is there any reason or purpose, or is it all just an accident of nature,” as our kids are being taught in school today, that it is?
I’ve often thought what a stretch of the imagination it is to even think that all of this, that we can see in creation, was the result of happenstance, without considering the only real choice there is, that we are created by an all knowing, all powerful, and all intelligent God!
All we have to do is look in the most powerful of telescopes and we see nothing but an endless expanse of order and sheer beauty; and if you turn around and focus inward, and look through the most powerful microscope, you see even more of the same, in endless order and endless beauty, none of which even makes sense to the natural mind, that all of this could have come about without an all intelligent, all powerful, and all knowing God!
To say that all of this, that we see in creation, happened by happenstance, just by chance, as some kind of freak accident of nature, would be like saying a tornado blew through a junkyard, and produced a 747 Jetliner on the other side!
How foolish does that sound; and yet that is what we are teaching our children today, in our public schools, colleges, and Universities!
As for me, I’d sooner believe that the tornado happened, to produce a 747 Jetliner, than to believe all of life and creation happen like that, by pure chance and coincidence!
Yet that is the wisdom of man, as is exhibited today in much of modern day science; and is even being taught as fact in our text books, that are used to teach our children in our public schools, colleges, and universities… and all it the result of a secular humanistic culture and society that has been built upon a lie; that denies the existence of God!
In fact, if there is any one message that is taught in our public school system today, all across our land, it is that God is absolutely irrelevant to anything that is of any importance, or consequence in your life!
So really, is it any wonder that our nation is in the condition it is in; where we have men and women in position of leadership, in both corporate and political capacities, all across our land, at every level, who have had absolutely no biblical education or training whatsoever, and what’s worse they have been conditioned since earliest childhood to despise and to disrespect not only the Bible, but Christianity in general.. and so is there any wonder that our nation today is going to hell in a hand basket?
So naturally the question arises, for a nation that was begun back in the 18th century, and was founded officially in 1776, which was the year our nation was first born; how is it that we have degenerated to this?
Especially when you consider that the whole structure and organization, in the formation of our Constitutional Republic, the layout of our government, and the writing of our U.S. Constitution, all of these things were designed and formed literally based on our forefather’s faith and belief in the Holy Bible, and in the God of the Bible; and so with that history and that heritage behind us, how is it that today all of this history is banned in our public schools; and any teaching about God to our children is considered illegal… and folks it has been that way ever since 1963?
As we look around ourselves today, and as we see all that is wrong with our culture, our society, our government, and even our world… the question arises for many of us… how did we get here?
Well, at least here in the U.S., to answer that question, I think we have to go back to 1963.
Now I’m sure things began to unwind and change for the worse long before that; but that is the year that one woman, Madalyn Murray O’Hair, took it upon herself to file a lawsuit against the Baltimore School System, which voted in her favor 8-1 to ban school prayer and label it “unconstitutional;” and even though not all prayer was immediately banned from schools at that time, through a process of time, almost ALL school prayer is banned today, in public schools.
My question is, where was the church all during this time, and how is it they just sat by idly, and let this happen?
Just look at what has happened since, as the result of that one decision, that was initiated by one woman:
What Happened When the Praying Stopped? ALEDO, TX (FR) – How did the removal of voluntary prayer from the schools of the United States affect our nation as a whole? That question has been answered in detail by a research company in Texas which has gathered and tabulated statistics from hundreds of sources relating to the rates of moral decline in America. Specialty Research Associates, under the direction of David Barton, has released a report entitled America: To Pray or Not to Pray which uses over 100 pages of graphs and statistical analysis to prove that crime, venereal disease, premarital sex, illiteracy, suicide, drug use, public corruption, and other social ills began a dramatic increase after the Engel vs. Vitale Supreme Court decision was made in 1962 which banned school prayer. Prayer in schools prior to 1962 was utilized in school districts all over the U.S. in many varieties. Some teachers used extemporaneous prayers, simply expressing their thoughts and desires; others implemented structured prayers, such as the Lord’s Prayer or the 23rd Psalm, or others approved by local school boards. New York students prayed each day: “Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence on Thee and beg Thy blessing over us, our parents, our teachers, and our nation.” It was this simple prayer which came under fire and went to the Supreme Court for the landmark decision. Says David Barton, “It is impossible to know how many of the 39 million children were involved in daily verbal prayers, but most accounts indicate that a clear majority of the students voluntarily participated in daily school prayer. Is it possible that the prayers that were being offered by these children and their teachers across the nation actually had any measurable, tangible effect?” It was this question that led Barton to uncover the statistical proof that the removal of prayer did indeed take its toll on America. Below are just a few of the examples featured in Barton’s report. A. Young People 1. For 15 years before 1963 pregnancies in girls ages 15 through 19 years had been no more than 15 per thousand After 1963 pregnancies increased 187% in the next 15 years. 2. For younger girls, ages 10 to 14 years, pregnancies since 1963 are up 553%. 3. Before 1963 sexually transmitted diseases among students were 400 per 100,000. Since 1963, they were up 226% in the next 12 years. B. The Family 1. Before 1963 divorce rates had been declining for 15 years. After 1963 divorces increased 300%each year for the next 15 years. 2. Since 1963 unmarried people living together is up 353% 3. Since 1963 single parent families are up 140%. 4. Since 1963 single parent families with children are up 160%. C. Education 1. The educational standard of measure has been the SAT scores. SAT scores had been steady for many years before 1963. From 1963 they rapidly declined for 18 consecutive years, even though the same test has been used since 1941. 2. In 1974-75 the rate of decline of the SAT scores decreased, even though they continued to decline. That was when there was an explosion of private religious schools. There were only 1000 Christian schools in 1965. Between 1974 to 1984 they increased to 32,000. a. That could have an impact if the private schools had higher SAT scores. In checking with the SAT Board it was found that indeed the SAT scores for private schools were nearly 100 points higher than public schools. b. In fact the scores were at the point where the public schools had been before their decline started in 1963 when prayer and Bible reading/ instruction was removed from the schools. c. The scores in the public schools were still declining. 3. Of the nation’s top academic scholars, three times as many come from private religious schools, which operate on one-third the funds as do the public schools. D. The Nation 1. Since 1963 violent crime has increased 544%. 3. Illegal drugs have become an enormous & uncontrollable problem. 2. The nation has been deprived of an estimated 30 million citizens through legal abortions just since 1973. If you would like a copy of America: To Pray or Not to Pray?, send $7.95 to Specialty Research Associates, P.O. Box 397, Aledo, TX 76008. All of the figures and statistics compiled in this book are taken from data made available by the Department of Health and Human Services, the Center for Disease Control, Statistical Abstracts of the United States, Vital Statistics of the United States, the U.S. Department of Commerce, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and other official sources. |
Now let’s move forward 10 year, to 1973… and see what happen that year?
ROE v. WADEDecided January 22, 1973A pregnant single woman (Roe) brought a class action challenging the constitutionality of the Texas criminal abortion laws, which proscribe procuring or attempting an abortion except on medical advice for the purpose of saving the mother’s life. A licensed physician (Hallford), who had two state abortion prosecutions pending against him, was permitted to intervene. A childless married couple (the Does), the wife not being pregnant, separately attacked the laws, basing alleged injury on the future possibilities of contraceptive failure, pregnancy, unpreparedness for parenthood, and impairment of the wife’s health. A three-judge District Court, which consolidated the actions, held that Roe and Hallford, and members of their classes, had standing to sue and presented justiciable controversies. Ruling that declaratory, though not injunctive, relief was warranted, the court declared the abortion statutes void as vague and overbroadly infringing those plaintiffs’ Ninth and Fourteenth Amendment rights. The court ruled the Does’ complaint not justiciable. Appellants directly appealed to this Court on the injunctive rulings, and appellee cross-appealed from the District Court’s grant of declaratory relief to Roe and Hallford. |
Let’s look at what actually happened, and what was the real reason behind this legal action, that has resulted in the death of over 50 Million unborn babies to date, in the U.S. alone!
The Truth BehindRoe vs. Wade
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So as we look at our world today, and the sad example we here in the United States of America have become, and how our society and our culture in general has been on the decline for so many years; and then you ask yourself the reason why, and how is it that we got here? I think the ONLY answer that makes any sense at all, is that we got here by not following and obeying the laws of God; and by breaking covenant with Him.
One thing is for sure, to the extent we have removed God from our culture and our society, both have suffered; and the same is equally true in our personal lives as well!
God didn’t just put us here to take up space, and to live as we see fit! Whereas it is true that He gave us each a free will to choose how we will spend our lives; the Bible is very clear on this point, that it is God’s one desire that we each of our own free will and volition will choose to spend our lives upon Him!
The Bible also tells us that we only have the time between when we are first born into this world, as a child; and then when we exit in our death, when our physical bodies return to the dust, from which it came, to make that decision.
Jesus is the only example we have, as to what God intends for us, and how our lives are supposed to be lived, and that is why Jesus is called the “Last Adam.”
We learn about Jesus, that He only did the things He saw the Father do; and only even spoke those things He heard the Father speak; and so Jesus lived out His entire life in perfect sync and harmony with the will of the Father.
To the extent you and I fail to do that, is what SIN is all about; where (as we learn in Isa 53) that “All of us as sheep have gone astray, and the Lord has laid upon Him (Jesus) the inequity of us ALL!”
So what am I saying in all of this?
Let none of us think that we shall escape being accountable before God, for how we spent our lives… because the Bible is very clear that we will ALL have to stand before Him one day and give Him an account!
For those of us who have made Jesus Christ Lord, not just in name, calling ourselves Christian; but have made Him Lord in that we have died to ourselves, our ambitions, our wants, and desires; and have given ourselves completely over to His service; and are living our lives, by faith, as best we can, just as Jesus exemplified… for those people, who are by faith following Jesus, ONLY those people (says the Bible) will spend eternity in Heaven!
Now the truth is, none of us can do that perfectly; and that is why we ALL need a Saviour; because Jesus paid the price for our SIN, meaning our missing the mark of God’s standards; and so those of us who have been born-again, the Bible says that we have been saved by grace… and therefore are recipients of God’s unmerited favor!
Everyone else, who has lived their lives as they saw fit, to serve themselves… each of them, the Bible says, will have to stand before God accountable for their own sins… and folks believe me when I tell you, you DO NOT want to be in that group!!!
So my suggestion is, if you haven’t already done so, why not make your peace with God today?
To find out how to go about doing that click on the following website: http://needhim.org/.
Shalom,
Skip Barland
—–Original Message—–
From: My Utmost For His Highest
Sent: Saturday, June 12, 2010 1:30 AM
To: myutmost@utmost.org/
Subject: My Utmost For His Highest : “Getting There”
![]() Getting There
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