Presidential Quotes and the Christian Faith

To celebrate Presidents’ Day, here are some quotes about our Christian faith uttered by past Presidents.  Enjoy.

“It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible.”  ~ George Washington

“We recognize no sovereign but God, and no King but Jesus!”  ~ John Adams

The future and success of America is not in this Constitution, but in the laws of God upon which this Constitution is founded.”  ~ James Madison

“We have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand, which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.” ~ Abraham Lincoln

“If we ever forget that we are one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.” ~ Ronald Reagan

“My custom is to read four or five chapters of the Bible every morning immediately after rising. It seems to me the most suitable manner of beginning the day. It is an invaluable and inexhaustible mine of knowledge and virtue.”  ~ John Quincy Adams


“I am profitably engaged in reading the Bible. Take all of this Book upon reason that you can, and the balance by faith, and you will live and die a better man.” ~ Abraham Lincoln


“A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education.”  ~ Theodore Roosevelt


“The foundations of our society and our government rest so much on the teachings of the Bible that it would be difficult to support them if faith in these teachings would cease to be practically universal in our country.” ~ Calvin Coolidge

“The reason that Christianity is the best friend of government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart.”  ~ Thomas Jefferson

“Suppose a nation in some distant Region should take the Bible for their only law Book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited! Every member would be obliged in conscience, to temperance, frugality, and industry; to justice, kindness, and charity towards his fellow men; and to piety, love, and reverence toward Almighty God … What a Eutopia, what a Paradise would this region be.” ~ John Adams

“The hope of a Christian is inseparable from his faith. Whoever believes in the divine inspiration of the Holy Scriptures must hope that the religion of Jesus shall prevail throughout the earth. Never since the foundation of the world have the prospects of mankind been more encouraging to that hope than they appear to be at the present time. And may the associated distribution of the Bible proceed and prosper till the Lord shall have made ‘bare His holy arm in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God’ (Isaiah 52:10).” ~ John Quincy Adams


“All must admit that the reception of the teachings of Christ results in the purest patriotism, in the most scrupulous fidelity to public trust, and in the best type of citizenship.”  ~ Grover Cleveland

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The above quotes were gleaned from
http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/christian-presidential-quotes-22-awesome-sayings
and
http://christianity.about.com/od/independenceday/a/foundingfathers.htm

Propped Up

leaningThe following story made the email circuit several times a while back and I see its truth now more than ever:

I heard of an old deacon who always prayed: “Lord, prop us up on our leanin’ side”. After hearing him pray that prayer many times, someone asked him why he prayed that prayer so fervently. He answered, ‘Well sir, you see, it’s like this….I got an old barn out back. It’s been there a long time, it’s withstood a lot of weather, it’s gone through a lot of storms, and it’s stood for many years. It’s still standing, but one day I noticed it was leaning to one side a bit. So I went and got some pine poles and propped it up on its leaning side so it wouldn’t fall. Then I got to thinking about that and how much I was like that old barn. I’ve been around a long time, I’ve withstood a lot of life’s storms, I’ve withstood a lot of bad weather in life, I’ve withstood a lot of hard times, And I’m still standing too. But I find myself leaning to one side from time to time, so I like to ask the Lord to prop us up on our leaning side, cause I figure a lot of us get to leaning, at times. Sometime we get to leaning toward anger, leaning toward bitterness, leaning toward hatred, leaning toward cussing, leaning toward a lot of things that we shouldn’t, so we need to pray, ‘Lord, prop us up on our leaning side,’ so we will stand straight and tall again, to glorify the Lord.

I want to thank all of you who have been our pine polls these last few months. You can never know how much each call, visit, email, text message, or Facebook comment has meant.

All of us need to remember that, next to salvation, we are God’s greatest gifts to each other. Let’s not grow weary in doing well and let’s continue to spur one another on to love and good works.

Two are better than one,
because they have a good return for their work:

If one falls down,
his friend can help him up.
But pity the man who falls
and has no one to help him up!

Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.
But how can one keep warm alone?

Though one may be overpowered,
two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken. – Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

Jesus’ un-Common Core Math

A new approach to learning, called Common Core, is all the conversation in these parts of late. Plenty of people line up on either pro or con side of the learning method, and I have no intention of wasting precious blog space debating its effectiveness. One thing Andrea and I learned last night while helping Bekah study for a math test, however, is that students do not learn math today the way we learned it in our day. Common Core seems UNCOMMON to our core way of thinking.

As I went to bed last night, I was thinking about how Bekah’s math is like a Biblical teaching God has been dealing with me about over the last four months. God has an UNCOMMON way of doing math as well.

One day after Jesus had finished teaching His disciples about restoration and forgiveness, Peter came to Jesus and asked, “How many times shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Seven times?” Peter was not trying to solve a mathematical word problem, but rather find God’s bottom line in a grace he wished he was not required to extend. He thought maybe after seven extensions of forgiveness, he would no longer be required to forgive.

Jesus replied with UNCOMMON CORE math. “I tell you, not as many as seven, but 70 times seven.” Jesus was not, however, telling Peter that he only had to forgive his brother 490 times, he was teaching him that forgiveness is perpetual. Jesus followed up with a parable about forgiveness in which the main point is that since we have and do daily freely receive forgiveness from God, we also should daily freely forgive others who have hurt us.

One difficult lesson is that if I want to be a stickler about Jesus’ math and only forgive 490 times, then that number is per person, per offense, per day. Forgiveness is a CHOICE and I choose every day to forgive the same offense over and over. Every time the devil brings the hurt to my attention, I heal the hurt by choosing to forgive. Some days I do better on the test than others, but eventually I pray I become a master as Jesus’ lesson on forgiveness and UNCOMMON CORE.

What past hurts are you holding? Let me encourage you to CHOOSE forgiveness… perpetually…daily… until the hurt is not longer a hurt. Eventually the devil will get the message and stop wasting his time bringing the hurt to your attention.

(The conversation between Jesus and Peter and the ensuing parable mentioned above can be found in Matthew 18:15-35.)

Be Still

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gold coinIf silence is indeed golden, then most of us are poverty-stricken.

Our lives are full and running over with audible stimulation. Most of the sounds that travel the neuro-highway from our cochlea to our brain insert themselves into our lives without our permission, often drowning out the more pleasant sounds we would rather here.

The cacophony of noises that we hear stands as evidence of our crowded lives, busy schedules, and high-pressure routines. From the annoying sound of the 5:00 a.m. alarm to the anchor’s sign-off on the evening news, sounds invade every moment of our days.

But what of solitude and silence? Although God created us as people in need of fellowship, He also placed within us the need to withdraw and listen. Even Jesus needed time to withdraw and refocus himself. Here are a few examples.

Mark 1:35 – Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed.

Mark 6:46 – And when He had sent them away, He departed to the mountain to pray.

Luke 4:42 – Now when it was day, He departed and went into a deserted place.

John 6:15 – Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone.

We fill our lives so full that we leave little time, or no time at all, to withdraw and be quiet with God. We find ourselves weak because we neglect times of silence and solitude.

For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: “In returning and rest you shall be saved; In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.” But you would not. – Isaiah 30:15

We cannot go and go and go without ever stopping. So, log off the computer, turn off the cell phone, hide the TV remote, and leave the iPad on the table for a few minutes each day. Be still and quiet before the Lord. Shut everything down and reduce your existence to nothing but you and God. You cannot afford NOT TO do it.

Be angry, and do not sin. Meditate within your heart on your bed, and be still. – Psalm 4:4

He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. – Psalm 23:2

Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth! – Psalm 46:10

The Answers Are in the Text Book

Way back when I was in school – light-years ago – we had a saying whenever we wanted to check the correctness of our homework. We would simply ask, “what does the book say?” Today, my 6th grader only has a couple of textbooks and she seldom is allowed to bring them home. In my day, most of my textbooks came home laden with hours of homework. As we worked through the answers, we always had to check our work with “what the book says.”

I find that in Christian circles these days, many have forgotten to ask that question: what does the book – the Bible –say? We have plenty of answers and we usually believe OURS are the correct ones and those who differ are wrong, eternally wrong. We have our answers because we are smart, because we’ve been Christian for so long, we just know what the right answer should be.

We no longer need God’s version of “Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sallie,” because we add, subtract, multiply, and divide by our own whims. We do not need God’s version of a dictionary, because we define what words mean according to our own understanding; words like marriage, sin, prosper. We do not need to know God’s history because we live in a more sophisticated world and the history we read about in the Bible is irrelevant to our day.

The trouble with the above paragraph is that it is all WRONG. WRONG. WRONG. We need to go back and see what the book says. Remember what Jesus said at the close of His classic Sermon on the Mount:

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” – Matthew 7:24-27

Our own answers have gotten us in a mess. We need to stop figuring it out on our own, and find out what the book says – the Bible.  Our lives are an OPEN BOOK test.

It Still Works

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I grew up in a Bible believing church where, as a young child, I had faithful teachers and pastors who invested time in my life to teach me God’s Word and to model it with their own lives. I also went to a Christian school where teachers interwove Bible truths with traditional learning. We learned that God was real and present in every part of our lives. We were required to memorize the Bible so that its truths were packaged “to go” in our hearts and readily available to us in our times of need.

Most of what I know about the Bible I learned at my church and school as a kid. Those teachings stuck with me, shaped me, comforted me, challenged me, and corrected me. They have been food to my soul.

For some reason, as we grow older, we start to look at those things we learned in our younger years as passé, and we challenge them, abandon them, or totally ignore them. Some of us find our way back, some don’t. For those of us who do, we wonder why we ever doubted, for we see so clearly in our more mature years the truthfulness of God’s Word and the value of its teaching. I wish there was some way that I could impress upon every young person just how “fool proof” a life built on God’s principles is.

Some never completely stray but still face the temptation to find sufficiency in things other than God’s Word. Maybe it’s their own ingenuity or skills, or the teaching of the latest guru, but for some reason they think they know better than God. He lets us try our own thing knowing all the while where we will wind up . . . flat on our faces.

I am thankful for all those who invested in me, and I hope that I am proving to be a profitable return on your investment. As I get older, I see more and more that I can trust God’s Word. I commend God’s Word to you. Let’s get back in the Word. Let’s learn it and live it, read it and heed it. It works.

But you must remain faithful to the things you have been taught. You know they are true, for you know you can trust those who taught you. You have been taught the holy Scriptures from childhood, and they have given you the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work. – 2 Timothy 3:14-17

Sharable Friday

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Just wanted to use the space today to share with you some of what I have read that has blessed me this week.  I hope these reads are a blessing to you as well.

Waiting Well – Tony Evans

The real problem isn’t the waiting – it’s what happens in our hearts while we wait.

For too many of us, waiting creates a downward spiral of impatience, frustration, selfishness and anger in our hearts. While waiting in line, we find flaws with the people in front of us.

And if this is how we respond to other people, what happens in our hearts when God makes us wait?

Click here to read the rest at Tony Evans’ blog

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“God often hides His blessing in trouble or trial, which makes it all the sweeter when it comes our way.” AW Tozer

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Seven Reasons Churches Are Too Busy – Thom Rainer

So how did churches get so busy? How did their calendars fill up so quickly that it left no breathing room for members and staff? There seems to be seven major contributing factors.

Click here to read those seven factors in the rest of Dr. Rainer’s blog.

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forgive people

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Maybe You Need a “Spiritual Root Canal”

rootcanalA root canal is a procedure that goes below the surface of a diseased tooth and removes the diseased matter, replacing it with synthetic material that keeps the tooth safe and in place. I love a quote I found on Wikipedia’s entry on Endodontic Therapy (what real dentists call the procedure), “Although the procedure is relatively painless when done properly, the root canal remains the stereotypical fearsome dental operation…” YA THINK?!?!?!

We can learn a spiritual lesson from the root canal. I have encountered several unhappy, miserable people in my life who live their lives angry, hurt, and defeated. However, anger, hurt, and defeat are not problems themselves, but symptoms that something is wrong “beneath the surface of the tooth” so to speak. The Bible calls it bitterness, an ongoing spirit of unforgiveness that affects a person’s spiritual, emotional, and even physical well-being.

One may best describe bitterness as an unsettled anger and resentment over a past hurt or disappointment. Bitterness is a refusal to extend grace to those who hurt us. Bitterness chooses (notice I said chooses) to hold on to hurt. Consider what the Word says:

See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled… – Hebrews 12:15

Bitterness, like a root, begins unseen, and continues to seethe beneath the surface. But bitterness cannot stay hidden for long – it erupts like a volcano spewing boiling lava of resentment. Bitterness creates trouble for the one who harbors it.

First, bitterness affects our body. Studies link bitterness to increased heart trouble, high blood pressure, gastro-intestinal disorders, and sleep disorders, as well as a number of other physical maladies. Our minds control what happens in our bodies, and an unforgiving spirit keeps our nervous systems churning at an unhealthy rate.

Even more dangerously, bitterness affects our spirit.

If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear. – Psalm 66:18

The Psalm reminds us that as long as we hold on to an intentional known sin, we are choosing its fellowship rather than God’s fellowship. God commands us to forgive, so not forgiving is sin. Holding on to unforgiveness prevents us from fellowship with God.

Also, bitterness affects our relationships – it “defiles many.” One person’s bitterness becomes another’s hurt when a bitter person carelessly slings the hot lava of resentment. I once heard a saying I have found to be true: “Hurt people hurt people.” A bitter person is negative, complaining, and argumentative; never a joy to be around, but rather a nuisance to be avoided.

Let me encourage you to do a bitterness audit of your life. Has someone caused you the kind of hurt that you enjoy revisiting? Have life’s disappointments created a scab that you cannot stop reopening? Acknowledge your hurts and their sources. Release your offenses and let God wash you clean. Sure, you may have to do it countless times for every offense, but the liberation and healing is worth it.

Where Is God in Our Trials?

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One of the things I am trusting God to accomplish through this latest challenge in my life is to use me to encourage others in their trials. One of the Scripture passages I claimed early in this ordeal is 2 Corinthians 1:3-5. Some good will come through my trials if I am able to help others going through trials of their own. With that in mind, I want to share with you how God spoke to me this past weekend through another blog.

Consider this verse from Job 23:10:

 But He knows the way that I take; when He has tried me, I shall come out as gold.

Some things worth noting in this verse begin with the truth that God both knows and sees what is happening in our lives. I have to admit, there are times lately that I feel I am “out of sight, out of mind” to people. I can rest assured, however, that I am neither out of God’s sight or His mind, and I am ESPECIALLY not out of His heart. The same holds true for you if you are experiencing a time of great testing in your life. Rest assured that God sees and knows where you are.

Also, God has a purpose and plan for the circumstances of our lives. Nothing happens to us by accident, not even those things that we deem “bad.” Remember this truth: GOD NEVER WASTES YOUR TEARS. Romans 8:28 reminds us that God uses all things – the good, the bad, the seemingly indifferent – for our good and His glory if we are one of His. Verse 29 reminds us that God uses all of our circumstances to conform us to the image of Jesus, and we remember He endured suffering for us for the joy set before Him (Hebrews 12:2).

Trials will never be easy, but we can endure them by looking up to the One who sees and knows us and looking forward to the eventual outcome – the good that God will bring from your present circumstances. I am going to hang in there, will you hang in there too? Let me know how I can pray for you.