(Socialism and Communism are becoming popular once again, and being preached in many of our major universities as preferable to Capitalism. They are even being brought into governing bodies, such as New York City as amazing as that is, considering that they have been proven as total failures time and again. To be accepted, they must overcome Christianity, for it is totally opposed to them. One way that those who advocate them use to overcome Christianity is to advocate “Separation of Church and State”. They use that phrase or doctor-in as a way to oppose Christianity. Is it a valid, legal doctor-in? The answer to that question is very important. Below, I have shown for sure, whether it is a legal precept in America or not. Do read it so that you can know for sure.)

“Italian socialist Antonio Gramsci wrote in an article “Audacia e Fede,” printed in  the Avanti!newspaper, May 1916. Gramsci wrote:

“Socialism is precisely the religion that must overwhelm Christianity.”

Gary North explained (Remnant Review, March 14, 2013): “Gramsci in the 1930s acknowledged that Western society was deeply religious, and that the only way to achieve a proletarian revolution would be to break the faith of the masses of Western voters in Christianity and the moral system derived from Christianity. He placed religion and culture at the base of the pyramid.”

On January 10, 1963, Democrat Congressman Albert Sydney Herlong, Jr. (FL-4th) read into the Congressional Record 45 Communist goals to capture America. These included:

“24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them ‘censorship’ and a violation of free speech and free press.

16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.

28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of ‘separation of church and state.'”

The Communist goals also included:

“17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers’ associations. Put the party line in textbooks.

18. Gain control of all student newspapers.

19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under communist attack.

25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.

26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as ‘normal, natural, healthy.’

27. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity, which does not need a ‘religious crutch.'”

With the stated goal of socialists to use the phrase “wall of separation between church and state,” to oppose Christianity, it is helpful to review opinions regarding it by past Supreme Court Justices. What did the courts decide about it?

Justice William Orville Douglas served the longest term on the bench in the Supreme Court’s history — 36 years, until his death January 19, 1980.

He was one of the eight Supreme Court Justices nominated by Democrat President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

He previously taught law at Columbia Law School and Yale Law School, and served on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Justice William O. Douglas wrote the majority decision in the 1952 case of Zorach v. Clauson: “The First Amendment, however, does not say that in every and all respects there shall be a separation of church and state. Otherwise the state and religion would be aliens to each other — hostile, suspicious, and even unfriendly.

• Municipalities would not be permitted to render police or fire protection to religious groups.

• Policemen who helped parishioners into their places of worship would violate the Constitution.

• Prayers in our legislative halls;

• the appeals to the Almighty in the messages of the Chief Executive;

• the proclamations making Thanksgiving Day a holiday;

• ‘So Help Me God’ in our courtroom oaths.
• these and all other references to the Almighty that run through our laws, our public rituals, our ceremonies would be flouting the First Amendment. A fastidious atheist or agnostic could even object to the supplication with which the Court opens each session: ‘God save the United States and this Honorable Court.'”

Justice Douglas continued:

“We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being. When the state encourages religious instruction, it follows the best of our traditions. For it then respects the religious nature of our people and accommodates the public service to their spiritual needs.

To hold that it may not would be to find in the Constitution a requirement that the government show a callous indifference to religious groups. That would be preferring those who believe in no religion over those who do believe.”

Douglas concluded:

“We find no constitutional requirement which makes it necessary for government to be hostile to religion and to throw its weight against efforts to widen the effective scope of religious influence. We cannot read into the Bill of Rights such a philosophy of hostility to religion.”

Chief Justice Warren E. Burger cited Justice Douglas’ Zorach v. Clauson opinion in the 1984 decision of Lynch v Donnelly: “The concept of a ‘wall’ of separation between church and state is a figure of speech, but the metaphor itself is not a wholly accurate description of the practical aspects of the relationship that in fact exist between church and state. The Constitution does not require complete separation of church and state; it affirmatively mandates accommodation, not merely tolerance, of all religions, and forbids hostility toward any. Anything less would require the ‘callous indifference’ (Zorach v. Clauson), that was never intended by the Establishment Clause. Indeed, we have observed, such hostility would bring us into ‘war with our national tradition as embodied in the First Amendment’s guaranty of the free exercise of religion. (McCollum).”

Justice Stanley Reed wrote in his dissent of McCullum v Board of Education, 1948: “Rule of law should not be drawn from a figure of speech.”

Justice Potter Stewart wrote in his dissent of Engle v Vitale, 1962: “The Court is not aided by the invocation of metaphors like the ‘wall of separation,’ a phrase nowhere to be found in the Constitution.”

Justice William Rehnquist wrote in his dissent of Wallace v Jaffree, 1984: “The ‘wall of separation between church and State’ is a metaphor based on bad history, a metaphor which has proved useless as a guide to judging. It should be frankly and explicitly abandoned. It is impossible to build sound constitutional doctrine upon a mistaken understanding of Constitutional history. The establishment clause had been expressly freighted with Jefferson’s misleading metaphor for nearly forty years. There is simply no historical foundation for the proposition that the framers intended to build a wall of separation. The recent court decisions are in no way based on either the language or intent of the framers. But the greatest injury of the ‘wall’ notion is its mischievous diversion of judges from the actual intentions of the drafters of the Bill of Rights.”

Judge Richard Suhrheinrich wrote in ACLU v Mercer County, 2006: “The ACLU makes repeated reference to ‘the separation of church and state.’ This extraconstitutional construct has grown tiresome. The First Amendment does not demand a wall of separation between church and state. Our nation’s history is replete with governmental acknowledgment and in some cases, accommodation of religion.”

In Committee for Public Education & Religious Liberty v. Nyquist, 413 U.S. 756, 760 (1973), the Court stated: “This Nation’s history has not been one of entirely sanitized separation between church and state. It has never been thought either possible or desirable to enforce a regime of total separation.”

The Tennessee Supreme Court stated in Carden v. Bland, March 9, 1956: “Great stress is laid upon the need of maintaining the doctrine of ‘separation of church and state’, but it should not be tortured into a meaning that was never intended by the Founders of this Republic, with the result that the public school system of the several states is to be made a godless institution.”

The U.S. Supreme Court stated in Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 602 (1971):

“Our prior holdings do not call for total separation between church and state; total separation is not possible in an absolute sense.”

Chief Justice Warren E. Burger continued in Lynch v Donnelly, 1984:

“That neither the draftsmen of the Constitution, who were Members of the First Congress, nor the First Congress itself, saw any establishment problem in employing Chaplains to offer daily prayers in the Congress is a striking example of the accommodation of religious beliefs intended by the Framers. Our history is pervaded by official acknowledgment of the role of religion in American life, and equally pervasive is evidence of accommodation of all faiths and all forms of religious expression and hostility toward none. It would be ironic if the inclusion of the creche in the display, as part of a celebration of an event acknowledged in the Western World for 20 centuries, and in this country by the people, the Executive Branch, Congress, and the courts for 2 centuries, would so ‘taint’ the exhibition as to render it violative of the Establishment Clause. To forbid the use of this one passive symbol while hymns and carols are sung and played in public places including schools, and while Congress and state legislatures open public sessions with prayers, would be an overreaction contrary to this Nation’s history and this Court’s holdings.”

Burger continued in Lynch v Donnelly:

“A significant example of the contemporaneous understanding of that Clause is found in the events of the first week of the First Session of the First Congress in 1789. In the very week that Congress approved the Establishment Clause as part of the Bill of Rights for submission to the states, it enacted legislation providing for paid Chaplains for the House and Senate. It is clear that neither the 17 draftsmen of the Constitution who were Members of the First Congress, nor the Congress of 1789, saw any establishment problem in the employment of congressional Chaplains to offer daily prayers in the Congress, a practice that has continued for nearly two centuries. It would be difficult to identify a more striking example of the accommodation of religious belief intended by the Framers.”

Chief Justice Burger continued:

“Our history is replete with official references to the value and invocation of Divine guidance in deliberations and pronouncements of the Founding Fathers and contemporary leaders. Beginning in the early colonial period long before Independence, a day of Thanksgiving was celebrated as a religious holiday to give thanks for the bounties of Nature as gifts from God. President Washington and his successors proclaimed Thanksgiving, with all its religious overtones, a day of national celebration and Congress made it a National Holiday more than a century ago. That holiday has not lost its theme of expressing thanks for Divine aid any more than has Christmas lost its religious significance. Executive Orders and other official announcements of Presidents and of the Congress have proclaimed both Christmas and Thanksgiving National Holidays in religious terms. And, by Acts of Congress, it has long been the practice that federal employees are released from duties on these National Holidays, while being paid from the same public revenues that provide the compensation of the Chaplains of the Senate and the House and the military services. Thus, it is clear that Government has long recognized — indeed it has subsidized — holidays with religious significance.”

Burger added:

“Other examples of reference to our religious heritage are found in the statutorily prescribed national motto ‘In God We Trust,’ which Congress and the President mandated for our currency, and in the language ‘One nation under God,’ as part of the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag. That pledge is recited by many thousands of public school children, and adults, every year. Art galleries supported by public revenues display religious paintings of the 15th and 16th centuries, predominantly inspired by one religious faith. The National Gallery in Washington, maintained with Government support, for example, has long exhibited masterpieces with religious messages, notably the Last Supper, and paintings depicting the Birth of Christ, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection, among many others with explicit Christian themes and messages. The very chamber in which oral arguments on this case were heard is decorated with a notable and permanent, not seasonal, symbol of religion: Moses with the Ten Commandments. Congress has long provided chapels in the Capitol for religious worship and meditation. There are countless other illustrations of the Government’s acknowledgment of our religious heritage and governmental sponsorship of graphic manifestations of that heritage.”

Burger continued:

“Congress has directed the President to proclaim a National Day of Prayer each year ‘on which (day) the people of the United States may turn to God in prayer and meditation at churches, in groups, and as individuals.’ Our Presidents have repeatedly issued such Proclamations. Presidential Proclamations and messages have also been issued to commemorate Jewish Heritage Week, Presidential Proclamation No. 4844, 3 CFR 30 (1982), and the Jewish High Holy Days, 17 Weekly Comp. of Pres. Doc. 1058 (1981).”

Chief Justice Warren E. Burger concluded the Lynch v. Donnelly decision:

“One cannot look at even this brief resume without finding that our history is pervaded by expressions of religious beliefs such as are found in Zorach. Equally pervasive is the evidence of accommodation of all faiths and all forms of religious expression, and hostility toward none. Through this accommodation, as Justice Douglas observed, governmental action has ‘follow[ed] the best of our traditions’ and ‘respect[ed] the religious nature of our people.'”

Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in Town of Greece v. Galloway, May 5, 2014: “In Marsh v. Chambers, 463 U. S. 783, the Court found no First Amendment violation in the Nebraska Legislature’s practice of opening its sessions with a prayer delivered by a chaplain paid from state funds. The decision concluded that legislative prayer, while religious in nature, has long been understood as compatible with the Establishment Clause. As practiced by Congress since the framing of the Constitution, legislative prayer lends gravity to public business, reminds lawmakers to transcend petty differences in pursuit of a higher purpose, and expresses a common aspiration to a just and peaceful society. Legislative invocations are compatible with the Establishment Clause. The First Congress made it an early item of business to appoint and pay official chaplains, and both the House and Senate have maintained the office virtually uninterrupted since that time. That the First Congress provided for the appointment of chaplains only days after approving language for the First Amendment demonstrates that the Framers considered legislative prayer a benign acknowledgment of religion’s role in society. In the 1850’s, the judiciary committees in both the House and Senate reevaluated the practice of official chaplaincies after receiving petitions to abolish the office. The committees concluded that the office posed no threat of an establishment.”

Justice Kennedy was referring to the House Judiciary Committee Report of Congressman James Meacham of Vermont, March 27, 1854: “At the adoption of the Constitution, we believe every State — certainly ten of the thirteen — provided  regularly for the support of the Church as for the support of the Government.”

Justice Kennedy continued in Greece v. Galloway: “Any test the Court adopts must acknowledge a practice that was accepted by the Framers and has withstood the critical scrutiny of time and political change. An insistence on nonsectarian or ecumenical prayer as a single, fixed standard is not consistent with the tradition of legislative prayer outlined in the Court’s cases. The Congress that drafted the First Amendment would have been accustomed to invocations containing explicitly religious themes of the sort respondents find objectionable.”

Kennedy continued:

“One of the Senate’s first chaplains, the Rev. William White, gave prayers in a series that included the Lord’s Prayer, the Collect for Ash Wednesday, prayers for peace and grace, a general thanksgiving, St. Chrysostom’s Prayer, and a prayer seeking ‘the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. The decidedly Christian nature of these prayers must not be dismissed as the relic of a time when our Nation was less pluralistic than it is today.”

Kennedy added:

“The Court instructed that the ‘content of the prayer is not of concern to judges’. To hold that invocations must be nonsectarian would force the legislatures that sponsor prayers and the courts that are asked to decide these cases to act as supervisors and censors of religious speech, a rule that would involve government in religious matters to a far greater degree than is the case under the town’s current practice of neither editing or approving prayers in advance nor criticizing their content after the fact. It would be but a few steps removed from that prohibition for legislatures to require chaplains to redact the religious content from their message in order to make it acceptable for the public sphere. Government may not mandate a civic religion that stifles any but the most generic reference to the sacred any more than it may prescribe a religious orthodoxy. See Lee v. Weisman, 505 U.S. 577, 590 (1992) (‘The suggestion that government may establish an official or civic religion as a means of avoiding the establishment of a religion with more specific creeds strikes us as a contradiction that cannot be accepted’); Schempp, 374 U. S., at 306 (Goldberg, J., concurring) (arguing that ‘untutored devotion to the concept of neutrality’ must not lead to ‘a brooding and pervasive devotion to the secular’).”

Justice Kennedy added:

“The First Amendment is not a majority rule, and government may not seek to define permissible categories of religious speech. While these prayers vary in their degree of religiosity, they often seek peace for the Nation, wisdom for its lawmakers, and justice for its people, values that count as universal and that are embodied not only in religious traditions, but in our founding documents and laws. The first prayer delivered to the Continental Congress by the Rev. Jacob Duché on Sept. 7, 1774, provides an example: ‘Be Thou present O God of Wisdom and direct the counsel of this Honorable Assembly; enable them to settle all things on the best and surest foundations; that the scene of blood may be speedily closed; that Order, Harmony, and Peace be effectually restored, and the Truth and Justice, Religion and Piety, prevail and flourish among the people. Preserve the health of their bodies, and the vigor of their minds, shower down on them, and the millions they here represent, such temporal Blessings as Thou seest expedient for them in this world, and crown them with everlasting Glory in the world to come. All this we ask in the name and through the merits of Jesus Christ, Thy Son and our Saviour, Amen’.”

Justice Anthony Kennedy concluded the Town of Greece v. Galloway decision, May 5, 2014:

“As a practice that has long endured, legislative prayer has become part of our heritage and tradition, part of our expressive idiom, similar to the Pledge of Allegiance, inaugural prayer, or the recitation of ‘God save the United States and this honorable Court’ at the opening of this Court’s sessions. It is presumed that the reasonable observer is acquainted with this tradition. Their purpose is largely to accommodate the spiritual needs of lawmakers and connect them to a tradition dating to the time of the Framers. Ceremonial prayer is but a recognition that, since this Nation was founded and until the present day, many Americans deem that their own existence must be understood by precepts far beyond the authority of government to alter or define, and that willing participation in civic affairs can be consistent with a brief acknowledgment of their belief in a higher power, always with due respect for those who adhere to other beliefs.”

(So, if you have stayed with me as we waded through all these legal decisions where the Judges ruled totally against the people who were trying to use the phrase: “Separation of Church and State” to block Christianity or Christian prayer anywhere it was found. Thus, you now know that Christianity or Christian prayer may not be stopped or extinguished in America, anywhere as totally acknowledged by official Jurisprudence, and that it is not even a valid term.)

Ron

The Bible Says: 2 Corinthians 12:9 NLT

(“My Grace is all you need. My Power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weakness, so that the power of Christ can work through me.)

When you struggle with a heavy load of any kind, isn’t it wonderful when someone offers to help, or insists that you rest as they take care of things for a while? This this is what happens with your life when you acept Christ and remain in relationship with Him. He says that as you grow in Him, He will work out His perfection in you. You don’t have to struggle, strive, or wear yourself out. He will work in you, in His timing, using His methods, and all for His purposes

Friend, he encourages. Nobody can be the best always. Nobody gets it right every time. But it’s in your times of weakness and failure that You have the capacity to grow the most.

When you have fallen short, you are in the perfect position to trust God to cover your failings. Therefore, take Heart and rely on Him to help you succeed.

Pray: “Heavenly Father help me view my times of weakness as opportunities to grow in You. amen.”

(Below is the history of Father’s Day in Amreica and thoughts about Father’s Day by some of its greatest leaders. Do read it.)

U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Center for Disease Control, and other agencies report that children from fatherless homes are:

• Five times more likely to live in poverty;
• Twenty times more likely to go to in prison;
• Higher risk of drug and alcohol abuse;
• Increased incidents of internalized and externalized aggressive behavioral problems;
• Greater chance of runaways and homelessness;
• Twice as likely to commit suicide.

The first “Father’s Day” was conceived by Grace Golden Clayton. She was inspired by the first Mother’s Day observance in 1908. She reminisced of her father, Methodist Reverend Fletcher Golden, who raised her and her siblings after their mother died.

Grace was also moved by the West Virginia Monongah Coal Mine explosion, December 6, 1907 – the worst mine disaster in the nation’s history. In the town of 1,000 people, 360 men died in the mine, leaving families fatherless. Grace arranged for a single special service at Central United Methodist Church on July 5, 1908,  saying: “It was partly the explosion that set me to think how important and loved most fathers are. All those lonely children and those heart-broken wives and mothers, made orphans and widows in a matter of a few minutes. Oh, how sad and frightening to have no father, no husband, to turn to at such an awful time.”

The person responsible for making Father’s Day an annual observance was Sonora Louise Smart Dodd. Hearing a church sermon on the newly established Mother’s Day, Sonora wanted to honor her father, Civil War veteran William Jackson Smart, who had raised six children by himself after his wife died in childbirth. The 28-year-old Sonora Louise Smart Dodd drew up a petition supported by the Young Men’s Christian Association and the ministers of Spokane, Washington, to celebrate Fathers’ Day on June 19, 1910. Sonora, with the help of the Y.M.C.A, spread the celebration of Father’s Day on the third Sunday in June, to Oregon, then Chicago and then around the nation.

In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge signed a Father’s Day resolution: “To establish more intimate relations between fathers and their children and to impress upon fathers the full measure of their obligations.” Coolidge stated further: “My father had qualities that were greater than any I possess. He was a man of untiring industry and great tenacity of purpose. He always stuck to the truth. It always seemed possible for him to form an unerring judgment of men and things. He would be classed as decidedly a man of character. I have no doubt he is representative of a great mass of Americans who are known only to their neighbors; nevertheless, they are really great.”

Coolidge wrote to his father: “I am sure I came to it (the presidency) largely by your bringing up and your example.”

In 1966, Lyndon Johnson issued the first Presidential Father’s Day Proclamation.

In 1972, President Nixon established Father’s Day as a permanent national observance, Proclamation 4127, stating: “To have a father — to be a father — is to come very near the heart of life itself. In fatherhood we know the elemental magic and joy of humanity. In fatherhood we even sense the divine, as the Scriptural writers did who told of all good gifts corning “down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17)—symbolism so challenging to each man who would give his own son or daughter a life of light without shadow.”

Nixon added: “Our identity in name and nature, our roots in home and family, our very standard of manhood—all this and more is the heritage our fathers share with us. It has long been our national custom to observe each year one special Sunday in honor of America’s fathers; and from this year forward, by a joint resolution of the Congress approved April 24, 1972, that custom carries the weight of law. Let each American make this Father’s Day an occasion for renewal of the love and gratitude we bear to our fathers, increasing and enduring through all the years. Now, Therefore, I, Richard Nixon, President of the United States of America, do hereby request that June 18, 1972, be observed as Father’s Day.”

On May 20, 1981, in a Proclamation of Father’s Day, President Ronald Reagan stated: “‘Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it,’ Solomon tells us. (Proverbs 22:6) Clearly, the future is in the care of our parents. Such is the responsibility, promise, and hope of fatherhood. Such is the gift that our fathers give us.”

Dr. Ben Carson explained: “The more solid the family, the more likely you are to be able to resist peer pressure. Human beings are social creatures. We all want to belong, we all have that desire, and we will belong, one way or another. If the family doesn’t provide that, the peers will, or a gang will, or you will find something to belong to.”

On Father’s Day, 1988, Ronald Reagan said: “Children, vulnerable and dependent, desperately need security, and it has ever been a duty and a joy of fatherhood to offer it. Being a father requires strength and more than a little courage to persevere, to fight discouragement, and to keep working for the family. With God’s grace, fathers find the patience to teach, the fortitude to provide, the compassion to comfort, and the mercy to forgive. All of this is to say that they find the strength to love their wives and children selflessly. American Indians had a name for a man who proved he had courage to defend his family without regard for his own life –– a ‘brave.'” 

Reagan ended: “Let us express our thanks and affection to our fathers, whether we can do so in person or in prayer.”

On December 6, 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt addressed Congress “No Christian and civilized community can afford to show a happy-go-lucky lack of concern for the youth of to-day; for, if so, the community will have to pay a terrible penalty of financial burden and social degradation in the to-morrow.”

Roosevelt continued: “The prime duty of the man is to work, to be the breadwinner; the prime duty of the woman is to be the mother, the housewife. All questions of tariff and finance sink into utter insignificance when compared with the tremendous, the vital importance of trying to shape conditions so that these two duties of the man and of the woman can be fulfilled under reasonably favorable circumstances.”

Genesis 18:19 records one of the reasons God chose Abraham: “For I know him (Abraham), that he will teach his children (to) keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment.”

Deuteronomy 4:9: “Teach them to your children and grandchildren.”

Deuteronomy 6:7: “And you shall teach them diligently to your children.”

Williams Jennings Bryan gave over 600 public speeches during his Presidential campaigns, with his most famous being “The Prince of Peace,” which was printed in The New York Times, September 7, 1913:

“Christ promoted peace by giving us assurance that a line of communication can be established between the Father above and the child below.”

U.S. Senate Peter Marshall commented on Marxist social deconstruction (20 Centuries of Great Preaching Vol. 12 Waco: Word, 1971 p. 11-19):

“The history of the world has always been the biography of her great men. There was a time in these United States when youth was inspired by heroes, when a picture of Washington or Lincoln adorned every school room wall. Along with the ponderous Family Bible on the Victorian table and the hymn books on the old-fashioned square piano, there looked down from the walls the likenesses of our national heroes. Those were the days of great beliefs — belief in the authority of the Scriptures, belief that prayer was really answered, belief in marriage and the family as permanent institutions, belief in the integrity and worth of America’s great men. These beliefs laid the groundwork for producing more great men, for many a boy figured, “If that man could do it, get an education, make his life count for something, then I can too.'”

Marshall continued:

“Then there dawned the day when the pictures of Washington and Lincoln did not fit in with our concept of modern décor. The old Family Bible looked embarrassingly out of place. So the pictures and the Bible were often relegated to the Attic of Forgotten Things. There went with them some of the most stabilizing influences of American life. We had become a more sophisticated people, somewhat cynical of the cherished beliefs of our ancestors, rather blasé, frankly skeptical of old-fashioned sentimentalism. Along with our higher education came a debunking contest. This debunking became a sort of national sport. It was smarter to revile than to revere, more fashionable to depreciate than to appreciate. In our classrooms at all levels of education, no longer did we laud great men — those who had struggled and achieved. Instead, we merely took their dimensions and ferreted out their faults. We decided that it was silly to say God sent them for a special task. They were merely products of their environments. The Constitution, that hitherto cherished charter of American liberties, was drawn up by men who never spoke on a telephone or flew in a plane, therefore, we should change the Constitution to suit modern ways.”

Marshall’s concerns were echoed by others.

Thomas Sowell, a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, stated:

“Ours may become the first civilization destroyed, not by the power of our enemies, but by the ignorance of our teachers and the dangerous nonsense they are teaching our children. In an age of artificial intelligence, they are creating artificial stupidity.”

In writing for The Federalist, June 12, 2020, Katy Faust and Stacy Manning reported:  “NAACP president Kweisi Mfume, when asked if white racism or the absence of fathers posed a greater threat to black Americans, replied without hesitation, ‘The absence of black fathers.'”

Senate Chaplain Marshall added that sons and daughters need courageous fathers to defend them against predatory agendas:

 “We failed to realize that when we were denying the existence of great men, we were also denying the desirability of great men. So now, many of our children have grown up without the guiding star holding in their hands only a bunch of question marks, with no keys with which to open the doors of knowledge and life. The young no longer had any particular ambition to become heroes. Their ambition now was to make as much money as possible, as quickly as possible, in whatever way was most convenient. Thus, our debunking is a sign of decaying foundations of character to the individual and in the national life. We who are Christians, believe that God gives the world a few great men to lead the rest of us closer to Him, that to depreciate or to deny their greatness is to deny one of God’s revelations of Himself to mankind. The heroes the Christian cherishes were (or are) human. They have their weakness. Their faults are well-known to their friends, better known to themselves. But the point is that with God and His guidance, they can provide the moral leadership that our nation so sorely needs. America needs heroes on the battlefield of everyday life in our homes, in our schools, on college campuses, in offices and factories, who can lead us towards a return to idealism. For time is running out for us.”

U.S. Senate Chaplain Peter Marshall concluded:

“The call today is for Christian heroes and heroines who are willing to speak a good word for Jesus Christ, who are willing to live by the undiluted values of Christian morality in the pagan atmosphere of our society surrounded by lewdness, pornography, and profanity. This may be a higher bravery than that of any battlefield: to face ridicule, sarcasm, sneering disdain for what one believes to be right. To fight for goodness and right, fighting the battle first in our own hearts and souls, seeking God’s help to overcome our particular temptations for the sake of peace, for the sake of America, for our own sake, for God’s sake.”

In 1942, General MacArthur was named Father of the Year.

 He stated:  “By profession I am a soldier and take pride in that fact. But I am prouder, infinitely prouder to be a father. A soldier destroys in order to build; the father only builds, never destroys. The one has the potentiality of death; the other embodies creation and life. And while the hordes of death are mighty, the battalions of life are mightier still. It is my hope that my son, when I am gone, will remember me not from the battle but in the home repeating with him our simple daily prayer, ‘Our Father Who Art in Heaven.'”

MacArthur composed “A Father’s Prayer”: 

“Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, brave enough to face himself when he is afraid, one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory. Build me a son whose wishes will not take the place of deeds; a son who will know Thee — and that to know himself is the foundation stone of knowledge. Lead him, I pray, not in the path of ease and comfort, but under the stress and spur of difficulties and challenge. Here let him learn to stand up in the storm; here let him learn compassion for those who fail. Build me a son whose heart will be clear, whose goal will be high; a son who will master himself before he seeks to master other men; one who will reach into the future, yet never forget the past. And after all these things are his, add, I pray, enough of sense of humor, so that he may always be serious, yet never take himself too seriously. Give him humility, so that he may always remember the simplicity of true greatness, the open mind of true wisdom, and the meekness of true strength. Then, I, his father, will dare to whisper, ‘I have not lived in vain.'”

President Reagan ended his Father’s Day message:

“With God’s grace, fathers find the patience to teach, the fortitude to provide, the compassion to comfort, and the mercy to forgive. All of this is to pray that they find the strength to love their wives and children selflessly.”

Ron

On this one trip to Honduras, it was so very hot and humid.  I worked mostly in the dental clinic, for there were always way more people needing relief from severe dental problems than we could possibly treat.

Before we go, I always ask the doctors going for the first time to go back and study some of the things that they had in medical school but have never seen in their practice in the US.   On this one occasion I remember that an older man came in with advanced jungle rot.  His whole foot was grossly swollen and just covered in a mass of it.  The doctor came over to me and said:  “Ronald, I don’t know what to do about this.  I can’t do an amputation down here.  What shall I do?”  

I told his nurse to spray it all down with Hydrogen Peroxide and bandage it up.  The old gentleman went away happy and smiling.

Also, on this trip, I was walking through the room where the ladies were finding the glasses from all those that had been donated to match the prescriptions that Dr. Youngerman had written.  They were then adjusting them to fit the heads of the patients with that prescription after those glasses had been found.  Just as I was about to leave, I noticed this one lady who was just standing there, quietly crying.

Of course, I asked her what was wrong, like was she ill?  She assured me that she was fine, but that it had to do with this one older Hispanic lady who had just left.  She said that after she had fitted the lady with her new glasses, she just stood there looking at her hands.  She asked the lady if something was wrong with her hands.

Did she need to go see one of the doctors?  The Hispanic lady said that her hands were fine.

She just said:  “This is the first time that I have been able to see my hands in as long as I can remember.”

This just struck an emotional chord with this lovely lady volunteer from Hurst, Texas and brought her to tears.

As you might suspect, finding the optimum job for each volunteer can be a challenge.  And in that heat and pressure, some folk’s temper gets the better of them late in the day.

On several trips this one guy went with us who was not mean, but just very aggressive.  The other team members called him “Rambo”.   I finally found just the right job for Rambo.  Almost without exception almost everyone down there needs worming.  It won’t last that long with the grownups, but we hope that the children will be able to stay worm free long enough for their mental facilities to develop so that they will not be impaired later in life.  I learned to put Rambo out in the very front of each clinic.   His job was to worm every single person coming into the clinic.  It worked great, and he really “adapted himself” to the task.

But on this trip, we encountered a major catastrophe.  We ran out of worm medicine with several more days to go.  I rely on the doctors to furnish the particular drugs that they think that they will need.  Much of the time they are able to use the samples that the drug salesmen leave at their offices.  However, someone slipped up this time and did not order nearly enough worm medicine.

On this trip our pharmacist was the pharmacy director for a Sack-and-Save store in Denton, Texas.  He was a real character.  Some might have described him as a “real piece of work.”  He told me not to worry about it, that he would take care of it.  And he for sure did.  He went to the one agricultural store in that town of Tela and bought a supply of cattle spray.  He was good; he knew what he was doing.  He diluted it down sufficiently with some organic chemicals and that became our worm medicine.  It turned out to be a bright pink, and, wow, was it effective.  I kid you not, for years after that I got calls from down there wanting some more of that pink worm medicine.  They had never had anything so effective.

So, I kept hearing a rumor on this one trip that some of the people had found a little girl and were planning on bringing her back with us.  I did not investigate and did not talk with them, but only when we got to the airport at San Pedro Sula did I see the little girl.  Her mother had dressed her in her best dress, and she was just a darling girl with the most engaging smile.  Her problem was that this massive growth covered the whole area of what would have been her right eye…….that whole area of her face.  I guessed her to be about 9 years old.

One of the doctors with us had called his friend in Mississippi who he knew specialized in such things.  The doctor in Mississippi had promised to operate on her.  Other than that horrible growth, she was just the cutest thing with her very best dress on.  Her name is Valentina.

I did not see her again until we got to Houston.  I waited until most all of our group had gone through immigration.  Then I looked way over where those huge curtains were pulled back from the floor to ceiling windows in the Houston terminal.  There was this group of our people with the little girl.  No one was headed toward immigration so I went over to see what was wrong.

They had panicked.  They had realized that this girl had no passport and no visa to enter the United States.  No one wanted to be the person to try to take her up to immigration, so they just handed her to me.

I don’t know how to tell you what happened next.  Just believe me. 

At that moment this powerful rush of power or energy just invaded my body.  It seemed to permeate every single cell.  I suddenly felt as if I could walk through fire or even walk on water.  I just took that little girl by the hand and said:  “Come on ‘little darlin’ Valentina, let’s go to the Estados Unidos”.  I headed straight ahead to the first open immigration station.

I had my passport out, but, of course, she had nothing, not even any ID.  There behind the counter was this huge black man in his green uniform.  He was not fat, he was just really huge and quit official and imposing looking.  He knew why she was there. He looked down at that little girl, and she just smiled up at him.  Big tears welled up in his eyes.  All he could say was:  “Lord bless you sir, Lord bless you sir.  You all just go right on.”  

He did not check my passport or anything as respects Valentina.  So, we just went right on.  She sat next to me on the flight to Dallas.  When we got there, I took her on up to my ranch west of Denton, Texas.  She really enjoyed visiting with my two daughters and my two youngest sons by the swimming pool that looks out over the prairie.  They were so kind to her. 

Before dark, I took her back to Carrollton to Onelia.  Onelia, who is from Honduras and is a nurse with a U.S. RN degree, escorted her to Mississippi the next morning.

A few days later I called Onelia to inquire about the operation.  She said that it was successful, but that the doctors told her that they estimated that the girl would have died in only 3 more weeks without that operation.

Onelia hopes to get her an artificial eye, later, some day.

On every trip that I took to Honduras, this wonderful, impressive lady went with us.  Her name is Barbara Borre.   She is over six feet tall and perfectly proportioned, not overweight and not skinny and very nice looking.  She was one of the top Immigration Officials in the Dallas Region.  Barbara just effused authority.  Since her shoulders were a little wider than most women and the military way in which she carried herself made her all the more impressive looking, especially when she put on her Immigration uniform.

It was very helpful to have her on those trips, since she could tell us what we could take out of the US and what we could bring in.  On every trip she worked in the Dental Clinic. 

When she heard about the little Honduran girl that I have just described and how she was able to get into the US without a passport or even a visa, here is what Barbara said to me by phone:  “Ronald, I can tell you with authority, that was absolutely a miracle from God!”

PS:  When writing this, I became curious about whatever happened to Valentina, so I called down there to Honduras just now.  They told me that she was living up in the mountains with her father and doing fine.

Ron

(This day of June 14 is authorized by our Congress as Flag Day in America. I think it is important for our people to undestand how and why that day came about, and why it should be celebrated. Below I have attempted to answer both of those questions. Do read it to ‘fine out’.)

Thirteen Stars and Thirteen Stripes.

It was on JUNE 14, 1777, that the Second Continental Congress selected the FLAG of the United States. Our founders were in the midst of fighting an eight year long war to come out from under the dominion of the most powerful globalist king in world history.

Twenty years after the Civil War, Union Army Captain George Thatcher Balch wrote the first version of the Pledge of Allegiance in 1885. Balch became auditor of the New York City Board of Education where he authored Methods of Teaching Patriotism in the Public Schools, 1890. He is largely responsible for flag poles being placed in front of public schools.

Balch ‘s Pledge, called a “salute to the flag,” was: “I give my heart and my hand to my country—one country, one language, one flag.”

Balch’s Pledge was revised in 1892 by 36-year-old Baptist minister Francis Bellamy, who was ordained in the Baptist Church of Little Falls, New York. Bellamy was a member of the staff of The Youth’s Companion, which published the Pledge of Allegiance on September 8, 1892, in Boston, Massachusetts. The magazine recommended the Pledge be part of school programs celebrating the first “Columbus Day,” together with prayers, patriotic speeches, the singing of “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee”, also known as “America,” written in 1831 by Samuel Francis Smith.

The fourth stanza stated: “Our father’s God, to Thee, Author of Liberty, To Thee we sing, Long may our land be bright With Freedom’s Holy Light. Protect us by Thy might, Great God, Our King.”

Students were also encouraged to read President Benjamin Harrison’s proclamation July 21, 1892: “Let THE NATIONAL FLAG float over every schoolhouse in the country and the exercises be such as shall impress upon our youth the patriotic duties of American citizenship. Let there be expressions of gratitude to Divine Providence.”

Public-school children first recited the Pledge at the National School Celebration dedicating the Chicago World’s Fair, October 12, 1892, for the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ discovery of America.

In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson designated JUNE 14 as “NATIONAL FLAG DAY.” “I call your attention to the approach of the anniversary of the day upon which THE FLAG OF THE UNITED STATES was adopted by the Congress as the emblem of the Union. I therefore request that throughout the nation, the FOURTEENTH DAY of JUNE be observed as FLAG DAY with special patriotic exercises to give significant expressions to our thoughtful love of America, our comprehension of the great mission of liberty and justice for an America which no man can corrupt, no influence draw away from its ideals, no force divide against itself. Done at the City of Washington in the year of Our Lord one thousand nine hundred and sixteen.”

In 1954, the Knights of Columbus led a campaign to add “One Nation Under God” to the Pledge, resulting in Congress passing Public Law 396.

President Dwight Eisenhower signed it into law on Flag Day, June 14, 1954: “Section 7”. The following is designated as the Pledge of Allegiance to THE FLAG: ‘I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.’

Such pledge should be rendered by standing with the right hand over the heart. However, civilians will always show full respect to the flag when the pledge is given by merely standing at attention, men removing the headdress. Persons in uniform shall render the military salute.”

President Eisenhower then stood on the steps of the U.S. Capitol Building and recited the revised Pledge of Allegiance for the first time. The words “under God” were taken from Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863: “that this Nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom.”

In 1979, a publication approved by and printed under authority of Congress titled “The Capitol-A Pictorial History of the Capitol and of the Congress” (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1979), p. 24, commented regarding the Pledge: “This Pledge attests what has been true about America from the beginning. Faith in the transcendent, sovereign God was in the public philosophy — the American consensus. America’s story opened with the first words of the Bible, ‘In the beginning God’. We are truthfully one nation under God ‘and our institutions presuppose a Divine Being,’ wrote Justice William O. Douglas in 1966:

“Only a nation founded on theistic presupposition would adopt a first amendment to ensure the free exercise of all religions or of none. The government would be neutral among the many denominations and no one church would become the state church. But America and its institutions of government could not be neutral about God.”

Speaking of the Flag, President Calvin Coolidge stated May 31, 1926: “Our condition today is not merely that of one people UNDER ONE FLAG, but of a thoroughly united people who have seen bitterness and enmity which once threatened to sever them, and a spirit of kindness and good will reign over them all.”

Coolidge stated May 25, 1924, at the Confederate Memorial, Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia: “It is the maintenance of our American ideals, BENEATH A COMMON FLAG, under the blessings of Almighty God. We know that Providence would have it so.”

President Franklin D. Roosevelt stated November 13, 1935: “OUR FLAG for a century and a half has been the symbol of the principles of liberty of conscience, of religious freedom and equality before the law; and these concepts are deeply ingrained in our national character.”

During World War Two, President Franklin D. Roosevelt stated on FLAG DAY, June 14, 1942: “The belief in man, created free, in the image of God – is the crucial difference between ourselves and the enemies we face today. We ask the German people, still dominated by their Nazi whip-masters, whether they would rather have the mechanized hell of Hitler’s ‘New’ Order or – in place of that, freedom of speech and religion.

We ask the Japanese people, trampled by their savage lords of slaughter, whether they would rather continue slavery and blood or – in place of them, freedom of speech and religion. We know that man, born to freedom in the image of God, will not forever suffer the oppressors’ sword.”

Roosevelt continued: “I am going to close by reading you a prayer: ‘God of the free, we pledge our hearts and lives today to the cause of all free mankind. Grant us victory over the tyrants who would enslave all free men and Nations. Grant us patience with the deluded and pity for the betrayed. Grant us valor that shall cleanse the world of oppression and the old base doctrine that the strong must eat the weak because they are strong.'”

After the Revolution, on June 14, 1783, General George Washington sent a “Circular Letter” to the thirteen Governors of the newly independent states. He stated: “I am now preparing to resign. Before I carry this resolution into effect, I think it a duty to make this my last official communication, to congratulate you on the glorious events which Heaven has been pleased to produce in our favor. The Citizens of America are from this period to be considered as the actors of a most conspicuous theater, which seems to be particularly designed by Providence for the display of human greatness and felicity. Heaven has crowned all its other blessing, by giving a fairer opportunity for political happiness, than any other nation has ever been favored with.”

Washington continued with a warning: “According to the system of policy the states shall adopt at this moment, they will stand or fall; and by their confirmation or lapse, it is yet to be decided, whether the Revolution must ultimately be considered as a blessing or a curse, not to the present age alone, for with our fate will the destiny of unborn millions be involved.”

(Washington’s concern for “unborn millions” was indicative of the founders, who sacrificed prosperity for posterity. Today, some are willing to sacrifice their posterity for prosperity, yoking future generations with ungodliness and unpayable debt.)

John Adams wrote, April 26, 1777: “Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom! I hope you will make a good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven that I ever took half the pains to preserve it.”

Washington concluded with an admonition to follow the example of “the Divine Author of our blessed religion”: “I now make it my earnest prayer that God would have you, and the state over which you preside, in His holy protection; that He would incline the hearts of the citizens to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another and particularly for their brethren who have served in the field; and finally, that He would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind, which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, and without an humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy nation.”

Yale President Ezra Stiles spoke of the American flag, May 8, 1783, describing how this nation is different from others which dominate their people through concentrated power: “That symbol of union, THE AMERICAN FLAG with it increasing stripes and stars, may have an equally combining efficacy for ages. The senatorial constitution and consulate of the Roman Empire lasted from Tarquin — the last Roman king, 509 B.C. — to Caesar — Roman dictator, 49 B.C..

The Assyrian endured without mutation through a tract of one thousand three hundred years from Semiramis — legendary ancient Babylonian queen — to Sardanapalus — alleged last Assyrian ruler, 627 B.C.. Nor was the policy of Egypt overthrown for a longer period from the days of Metzraim — upper and lower Nile kingdoms, c.3,300 B.C. — till the time of Cambyses — Persian conqueror of Egypt, 525 B.C. — and Amasis — last great Egpytian ruler, 526 B.C. — The Medo-Persian — 550-330 B.C. — and Alexandrine Empires — 356-323 B.C. — and that of Timur — 1370-1405 A.D. — who once reigned from Smyrna to the Indus, were of short and transitory duration. Pragmatic sanction secured the imperial succession in the House of Austria for ages — Habsburgs, 1020-1780. Whatever mutations may arise in the United States, perhaps hereditary monarchy and a standing army will be the last.”

Ben Franklin warned June 2, 1787: “There is scarce a king in a hundred who would not, if he could, follow the example of Pharaoh – get first all the people’s money, then all their lands, and then make them and their children servants forever. There is a natural inclination in mankind to kingly government. I am apprehensive that the government of the states may, in future times, end in a monarchy.”

Yale President Ezra Stiles continued: “This great American revolution, this recent political phenomenon, will be contemplated by all nations. Navigation will carry THE AMERICAN FLAG around the globe itself; and display the thirteen stripes and new constellation at Bengal and Canton, on the Indus and Ganges, on the Whang-ho and the Yang-tse-kiang; and with commerce will import the wisdom and literature of the east. That prophecy of Daniel is now literally fulfilling – there shall be a universal traveling to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. This knowledge will be brought home and treasured up in America: and being here digested and carried to the highest perfection, may re-blaze back from America to Europe, Asia and Africa, and illumine the world with truth and liberty.”

Ezra Stiles added: “John Adams observes — in letter from Amsterdam, April 28, 1782: ‘But the great designs of Providence must be accomplished. The progress of society will be accelerated by centuries by this revolution. American ideas of toleration and religious liberty will become the fashionable system of Europe very soon. Light spreads from the Dayspring in the west — Luke 1:78; and may it shine more and more until the perfect day — Proverbs 4:18.”

Stiles concluded: “The United States will embosom all the religious sects or denominations in Christendom:

The Presbyterian, the Church of England, the Unitas Fratrum, Moravian bishops, Ancient Bohemian churches, the Baptists, the Friends. Quakers, the Lutherans, the Romanists, the Dutch, and Gallic, and German reformed or Calvinistic churches, a Greek church brought from Smyrna, Wesyans, Mennonites, all who will give the religious complexion to America, Episcopal, Greek and Armenian patriarchates. With a most generous benevolence of a friendly cohabitation of all sects in America, proving that men may be good members of civil society, and yet differ in religion. Little would civilians have thought ages ago, that the world should ever look to America for models of government.”

President James Buchanan stated March 4, 1857: “We ought to cultivate peace, commerce, and friendship with all nations in a spirit of Christian benevolence toward our fellow-men. The people, under the protection of THE AMERICAN FLAG, have enjoyed civil and religious liberty.”

In 1865, President Abraham Lincoln commented to State Senator James Scovel of New Jersey: “If God gives me four years more to rule this country, I believe it will become what it ought to be — what its Divine Author intended it to be — no longer one vast plantation for breeding human beings for the purpose of lust and bondage. But it will become a new Valley of Jehoshaphat — Joel 3:2, 12, where all the nations of the earth will assemble together UNDER ONE FLAG, worshiping a common God, and they will celebrate the resurrection of human freedom.”

When Lincoln died, President Andrew Johnson stated April 25, 1865: “In order to mitigate that grief on earth which can only be assuaged by communion with the Father in heaven. I appoint the 25th day of May next, to be observed, wherever in the United States THE FLAG OF THE COUNTRY may be respected, as a day of humiliation and mourning, and I recommend citizens assemble in their respective places of worship, there to unite in solemn service to Almighty God.”

President Rutherford B. Hayes noted in his diary that during the Civil War: “Archbishop John Baptist Purcell strung THE AMERICAN FLAG, in the crisis of our fate, from the top of the Cathedral in Cincinnati April 16, 1861! The spire was beautiful before, but the Catholic prelate made it radiant with hope and glory for our country!”

When Rutherford B. Hayes died, President Benjamin Harrison described him, January 18, 1893: “He was a patriotic citizen, a lover of THE FLAG and of our free institutions, an industrious and conscientious civil officer, a soldier of dauntless courage, a loyal comrade and friend, a sympathetic and helpful neighbor, and the honored head of a happy Christian home.”

President Andrew Johnson stated while serving as a Senator from Tennessee (The Life and Public Services of Andrew Johnson-State Papers, Speeches and Addresses, by John Savage, NY: Derby & Miller, 1866, p. 247, appendix p. 87, January 31, 1862): “Let us look forward to the time when we can take THE FLAG OF OUR COUNTRY and nail it below the Cross, and there let it wave as it waved in the olden times, and let us gather around it and inscribe for our motto: ‘Liberty and Union, one and inseparable, now and forever,’ and exclaim, ‘Christ first, our country next!'”

In dedicating the Oregon Trail, President Warren G. Harding stated July 3, 1923: Never in the history of the world has there been a finer example of civilization following Christianity. The missionaries led under the banner of the Cross, and the settlers moved close behind under the STAR-SPANGLED SYMBOL OF THE NATION.”

On January 10, 1963, Democrat Congressman Albert Sydney Herlong Jr., of Florida, read into the Congressional Record the 45 communist goals for America, which included:

“12. Do away with all loyalty oaths.

17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers’ associations. Put the party line in textbooks.

18. Gain control of all student newspapers.

19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.

25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.

27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with “social” religion. Discredit the Bible.

28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of “separation of church and state.”

29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned …

30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the ‘common man.’

31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the ‘big picture’.

42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use ‘united force’ to solve economic, political or social problems.”

Socialist Howard Zinn wrote A People’s History of the United States, 1980, in order to debunk America’s heritage.

An exposé revealing Zinn’s manipulation of the facts was written by Mary Garbar, Debunking Howard Zinn: Exposing the Fake History That Turned a Generation against America, 2019.

The Founding Fathers, for all their human failings, gave a present to future Americans, namely, each citizen gets to determine their own destiny, in a sense, be the king of their own life, and then all citizens, together, are the king of the country.

The pledge is “to the Flag and to the Republic for which it stands.”

A “republic” is where the people are king, ruling the country through their public servants called representatives.

Kings have subjects, who are subjected to the king’s will. Republics have citizens. The word “citizen” is Greek for co-ruler, co-sovereign, co-king.

When a person pledges allegiance to the Flag, they are pledging allegiance to us being in charge of ourselves. They are saying that we, the people, are the king, not some power-usurping globalist totalitarian deep state dictator.

When someone protests the flag, they are effectively saying: “I don’t want to be the king anymore, I protest this system where I participate in ruling myself, I would rather relinquish authority over my life to deep-state government bureaucrats.”

Whether they fully realize it or not, those who dishonor the flag are effectively rejecting:

• equality before the law,
• freedom of speech,
• freedom of conscience,
• freedom of religion, and
• inalienable rights from the Creator.

“Kneeling” is the universal sign of surrender. Old Testament believers, such as Daniel, or Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, would rather be thrown into the lion’s den or into the fiery furnace than kneel to something other than God.

Early Christian believers would rather be martyred in the Roman Colosseum than kneel to something other than God.

At the Dodger versus Giants baseball game, July 23, 2020, Giants pitcher Sam Coonrod was to only player not to kneel. When asked why, Coonrod stated: “I’m a Christian, so I just believe that I can’t kneel before anything besides God.”

The Christian Post reported, August 3, 2020: “Orlando Magic forward Jonathan Isaac was the lone player to stand during the national anthem. He cited the Gospel later when asked to explain his reasoning. ‘I don’t think that kneeling for me, personally, is the answer. For me, black lives are supported through the Gospel, all lives are supported through the Gospel. My life has been supported by the Gospel. Everyone is made in the image of God and we all share in His glory.'”

Isaac continued: “We all make mistakes but I think the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that there’s grace for us and that Jesus came and died for our sins, and that we all will come to an understanding of that and that God wants to have a relationship with us.”

Ron

The Bible says: Hebrews 12:1-2

“Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith.”

Whenever you struggle with your faith in a particular situation, remember: you can place your trust in Jesus because of who He is and what He’s done.

He is your Savior, Lord, Life-giver, Protector, Provider, Counselor, Sustainer, and Redeemer. He knows everything about you—even details you don’t know about yourself.

Because the Lord God is omniscient and omnipotent, He always knows what is absolutely best for you. And because He loves you, you can count on the fact that He will faithfully provide it for you.

Your wonderful Savior has forgiven you of all your sins (Colossians 1:13-14) He is absolutely sovereign, unfathomably wise, and He cares for you perfectly.

Friend, you can trust Jesus to guide your steps. So place your absolute faith in Him, confident that He will honor your trust in Him and lead you to life at its very best.

Pray: “Lord Jesus, I fix my eyes on You, confident You will lead me in the best way possible, amen.“

(We hear a lot about the famous generals of WWII like McArthur and Eisenhouer, but little about Omar Bradley. He was also an integral part of the victory that saved fredom for the civilized world. Below is a brief history of his life and some of his thoughts about life and America so you will know. Do read it.)

Five-Star General Omar Bradley died APRIL 8, 1981.

In August 1944, General Omar Bradley led the 12th Army Group in France and Germany, consisting of a million men in four armies.

President Johnson addressed him, May 23, 1964: “General Bradley, you were the field commander of more American fighting troops than any commander in any era.”

Born 1893, in his grandparents’ cabin a short distance from Clark, Missouri, Omar Bradley would walk to school with his father.

He helped provide food for his family through hunting and fishing.

Bradley was 12 years old when his father died.

 He became a star player on his high school baseball team.

In his autobiography, A General’s Life-An Autobiography by General of the Army Omar N. Bradley (Simon & Schuster, 1983), he wrote:

“The editor of the 1909 yearbook wrote of me, ‘a good ball player, if he does not look like one.'”

Bradley worked for Wabash Railroad, similar to another Missouri leader, Harry S Truman, who worked for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway.

Like Harry S Truman, who attended a Presbyterian Sunday School, Omar Bradley attended Central Christian Church Sunday School, as he stated in A General’s Life (1983):

“Father was raised in the Church of Christ, baptized by immersion at about age 15 and called a ‘Christian.’ Mother, like all the Hubbards, was a Baptist, but she converted to the Christian Church. We walked to the Church of Christ every Sunday, wearing our finest clothes.

Although mother was not a devout woman, she was a regular Sunday churchgoer, as was I. We joined the Central Christian Church, an impressive new stone structure with a soaring steeple and a large congregation.”

Omar Bradley’s church attendance was providential, as it was his Sunday School superintendent at Central Christian Church in Moberly, Missouri, who recommended he apply to West Point.

He wrote: “Every member of our baseball team at West Point became a general: this proves the value of team sports.”

President Eisenhower said, April 29, 1954: “I thank General Bradley, my old comrade in arms, my classmate from West Point, my great associate in World War II.”

Bradley commanded the 2nd Army Corps in North Africa and was Senior Commander of U.S. Ground Forces for the invasion of France.

General Omar Bradley wrote of being on the USS Ancon during the invasion of Sicily, July of 1943, (A General’s Life-An Autobiography by General of the Army Omar N. Bradley, Simon & Schuster, 1983, p. 181):

“Paratroopers left me with no immediate reserves ashore to call on. Allen’s sector was thus a potential weak link in the beachhead chain. And yet I counted our blessings. All our forces had got ashore with negligible casualties and were displaying remarkable aggressiveness. Surveying the chaotic beaches with binoculars from the bridge of the Ancon I offered a silent prayer of thanks to God. The Allies had returned to Europe to stay.”

He later wrote: “I have returned many times to honour the valiant men who died.Every man who set foot on Omaha Beach was a hero.”

After liberating Nazi prison camps, Bradley stated: “The smell of death overwhelmed us even before we passed through the stockade. More than 3200 naked, emaciated bodies had been flung into shallow graves. Others lay in the streets where they had fallen. Eisenhower’s face whitened into a mask. Patton walked over to a corner and pucked. I was too revolted to speak. For here death had been so fouled by degradation that it both stunned and numbed us.”

General Omar Bradley was quoted in Edgar F. Puryear’s 19 Stars: A Study in Military Character and Leadership (1981): “Dependability, integrity, the characteristic of never knowingly doing anything wrong, that you would never cheat anyone, that you would give everybody a fair deal. Character is a sort of an all-inclusive thing. If a man has character, everyone has confidence in him. Soldiers must have confidence in their leader.”

Bradley stated:

• “I learned that good judgment comes from experience and that experience grows out of mistakes.”

• “Bravery is the capacity to perform properly even when scared half to death.”

• “This is as true in everyday life as it is in battle: we are given one life and the decision is ours whether to wait for circumstances to make up our mind, or whether to act, and in acting, to live.”

 General Bradley was Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, 1948-49, and first Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1950.

President Gerald Ford remarked upon presenting Omar Bradley with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, January 10, 1977: “Military hero, courageous in battle, and gentle in spirit, friend of the common soldier, General of the Army, first Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he embodies the best of the American military tradition with dignity, humanity, and honor.”

General Omar Bradley stated in an Armistice Day speech, November 10, 1948 (published in Omar Bradley’s Collected Writings, Volume 1, 1967): “To ignore the danger of aggression is simply to invite it. We shall doom our children to a struggle that may take their lives. We know that unless free peoples stand boldly and united against the forces of aggression, they may fall wretchedly, one by one, into the web of oppression.”

General Omar Bradley stated on Armistice Day, 1948: “With the monstrous weapons man already has, humanity is in danger of being trapped in this world by its moral adolescents. Our knowledge of science has clearly outstripped our capacity to control it. We have many men of science; too few men of God. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount. The world has achieved brilliance without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. If we continue to develop our technology without wisdom or prudence, our servant may prove to be our executioner.”

 In contrast to the totalitarian dictators he fought against, General Omar Bradley stated in his Armistice Day Address, November 10, 1948: “In the United States it is THE PEOPLE who are SOVEREIGN. The Government is THEIRS—to speak THEIR voice and to voice THEIR will.”

He explained: “The nation needs men who think in terms of service to their country and not in terms of their country’s debt to them.”

He continued: “Freedom, no word was ever spoken that has held out greater hope, demanded greater sacrifice, needed more to be nurtured, blessed more the giver. . . or came closer to being God’s will on earth.”

Bradley warned: “America today is running on the momentum of a godly ancestry, and when that momentum runs out, God help America.”

Ron

The Bible says: Romans 1:17

“The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, ‘But the righteous man shall live by faith.'”

The greatest barrier to our faith is not circumstances, your past, or anyone’s actions. Rather, it’s your lack of belief in God’s sovereignty, wisdom, and love. You don’t trust Him. And it’s hindering His power from flowing in your life.

So how do you overcome faulty faith? First, ask the Lord to help you be so centered on Him that when difficulties arise, you immediately look for Him and He will help you achieve this focus as you spend time with Him and meditate on His Word daily.

Second, relinquish you desire for control. Friend, it’s scary to let go; there’s no doubt about it. But whenever the Father calls you to follow Him in Faith, He promises to support you every step of the way. He assumes full responsibility for your needs and is ready to equip you for whatever arises.

So overcome your faulty faith by releasing your need to direct your circumstances and trusting in your sovereign Savior. Obey God and leave the consequences to Him. He will certainly bless you.

So pray: ‘Father strengthen my faith. Help me to trust you fully whenever troubles arise and keep my eyes fixed on You, Amen’.

(Below is an accurate account of the founding of the U.S. Marines and the U.S. Coast Guard. Do read it so that you will know the history of their beginning)

When a lower court does not give you justice, you appeal your case to a higher court, and ultimately to the Supreme Court.

But what if the Supreme Court does not give you justice?

You appeal to Heaven!

This was the inspiration behind one of the first flags of America’s navy — The Pine Tree Flag.

Why the Pine Tree?

Eastern White Pine Trees grew to a height of over 150 feet and were ideal for use as masts on British ships.

The King would send forest surveyor agents onto colonial American farms and mark the best trees as belonging to the King.

These pines contributed to the British navy becoming the most powerful navy in the world.

Colonists did not like government agents coming onto their property.

In 1734, there was a Mast Tree Riot where men disguised as Indians chased away the King’s forest surveyor.

In 1772, New Hampshire had another show of resistance with the Pine Tree Riot.

The King sent agents to enforce his claim to every tree in New England over 12 inches in diameter.

In 1772, the sheriff came to South Weare, New Hampshire, to arrest those who had cut down some of the King’s trees.

In retaliation, 30 men burst into the sheriff’s room at the inn at night. With their faces blackened with soot to hide their identity, they beat the sheriff sore with switches made from pine branches.

The men were later arrested and forced to pay a fine.

This incident was a test of the King’s authority and was considered by some as the beginnings of the revolution.

When the Revolutionary War started, General Washington’s secretary, Colonel Joseph Reed, suggested in a letter, October 21, 1775:

“Construct a flag with a white ground and a tree in the middle, the motto AN APPEAL TO HEAVEN.”

On July 26, 1776, the Massachusetts General Court chose it as the flag of the state’s navy:

“…that the Colours be a white Flag, with a green Pine Tree, and an Inscription, ‘APPEAL TO HEAVEN.'”

CNN published the article “The history behind the controversial ‘Appeal to Heaven’ flag,” May 31, 2024, stating:

“The Appeal to Heaven flag has multiple meanings and has been used in differing capacities. The flag served as a naval ensign in Massachusetts until 1971, and until recently, flew outside San Francisco’s city hall alongside other historic flags.” 

The Pine Tree Flag was a symbol of resistance similar to the Liberty Tree Flag.

Both were flown in New England towns, churches, riverbanks, as well as at the nation’s capital in Philadelphia. The flag’s phrase, “An Appeal to Heaven,” was first used by John Locke in his Second Treatise on Civil Government, 1690, regarding the right of citizens who have been denied justice to go above the King’s head: “Where the body of the people is deprived of their right where there lies no appeal on earth … they have just cause to make their appeal to heaven. Where there is no judicature (justice) on earth, to decide controversies amongst men, God in heaven is judge. He alone, it is true, is Judge of the right. So in this he should appeal to the Supreme Judge.”

Patrick Henry referenced the phrase in his “give me liberty or give me death” speech at the Second Virginia Convention, March 23, 1775:

“An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left us! We shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations.”

Massachusetts Provincial Congress stated April 26, 1775, following the Battles of Lexington and Concord:

“Appealing to Heaven for the justice of our cause, we determine to die or be free.”

Thomas Jefferson helped draft The Declaration of Causes and Necessity for Taking Up Arms, July 6, 1775, which stated:

“We most solemnly, before God and the world resolved to die freemen rather than to live slaves. With an humble confidence in the mercies of the Supreme and Impartial Judge and Ruler of the Universe.”

The Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776, stated:  The American navy can be traced back to the “Appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States.”

In June of 1775, citizens acting as merchant mariners captured the British schooner HMS Margaretta around Machias, Massachusetts (present-day Maine).

That same month, General George Washington, with the help of merchant ship owner Colonel John Glover of Marblehead, Massachusetts, chartered and outfitted several ships to interrupt the British supplies.

The marker at the base of John Glover’s statue in Boston states:

“John Glover of Marblehead – A Soldier of the Revolution. He commanded a regiment of one thousand men raised in that town known as the marine regiment, and enlisted to serve throughout the war.

He joined the camp at Cambridge, June 22, 1775, and rendered distinguished service in transporting the army.”

On September 2, 1775, George Washington personally financed America’s first armed naval vessel, the USS Hannah, named for John Glover’s daughter. Less than a week later, on September 7, 1775, the USS Hannah captured the British ship HMS Unity, the first prize taken by a U.S. naval vessel.

Other ships were outfitted by John Glover:

• Franklin,
• Warren,
• Hancock, and
• Lee.

These ships had crews mostly of experienced Massachusetts fisherman who defended American ports and raided British ships transporting ammunition and supplies.

This flotilla, sometimes referred to as Washington’s fleet, captured 55 British ships.

The American schooner Lee captured the British brig HMS Nancy on November 29, 1775, with its cargo of 2,000 Brown Bess muskets, 100,000 flints, 30,000 of artillery ammunition, 30 tons of musket ammunition, and a 13 inch brass mortar.

This was a tremendous benefit to the new Continental Army stationed near Boston.

A Continental Congress resolution to create a navy was introduced October 13, 1775, but was tabled.

On December 22, 1775, the resolution passed, and the Continental Congress authorized a Continental Navy, consisting of:

• two 24-gun frigates, Alfred and Columbus;

• two 14-gun brigs, Andrew Doria and Cabot;

• three schooners, Hornet, Wasp, and Fly.
• he Continental Navy was put under the command of Esek Hopkins, Esq.

Plus the three masted fighting ship, The Eagle, which served with distinction during the war and is still maintained by the Cadets at Annapolis in sailing condition.

Four captains were appointed:

Dudley Saltonstall, Abraham Whipple, Nicholas Biddle and John Burrows Hopkins.

Congress also commissioned five first lieutenants, one of whom was the future naval hero, John Paul Jones.

On August 27, 1776, Washington lost the devastating Battle of Brooklyn Heights. The entire American army was trapped against the water. The Revolutionary War would have ended there unless Washington could find a way to evacuate his army.

John Glover and his Marblehead fishermen saved the day by rowing Washington and the entire Continental Army, under an amazing fog, that all knew was provided by God, for there had never been suck a fog on the East River to last most all day.  It caused no sound to be heard by the British forces, dug-in right there, as Washington’s men escaped across the East River to Manhattan Island.

Glover’s large Durham rowboats also ferried Washington and the Continental Army across the ice packed Delaware River for the surprise attack on the German Hessian troops at the Battle of Trenton, December 26, 1776 on Christmas day.

Another early American flag was designed by Brigadier General Christopher Gadsden, a South Carolina delegate to the Continental Congress.

The flag had the words “Don’t Tread On Me.”

Ben Franklin had made that phrase popular during the French and Indian War by printing it in his Pennsylvania Gazette, 1754, in a call to join the Albany Congress.

Ben Franklin and John Adams described Gadsden’s flag in a letter to the Ambassador of Sicily, 1778:

“ A South Carolina flag with a rattlesnake in the middle of thirteen stripes.”

South Carolina congressional journals, February 9, 1776, recorded:  “Col. Gadsden presented to the Congress an elegant standard, such as is to be used by the commander in chief of the American Navy; being a yellow field, with a lively representation of a rattlesnake in the middle in the attitude of going to strike and these words underneath, “Don’t tread on me.”

A version of the Gadsden Flag was called the First Navy Jack, and was flown by Esek Hopkins, the first Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Navy, on his flagship the USS Alfred.

It was also flown by John Paul Jones and other Navy ships.

Where the army fought on land, and the navy fought at sea, and a special force was created of soldiers who could sail and fight with the navy and also lead an invasion and fight on land.

On November 10, 1775, the Continental Congress passed a resolution creating two battalions of Continental Marines.

The first marines were recruited at Tun Tavern in Philadelphia, and served under the command of Captain Samuel Nicholas.

The first Marine amphibious assault was on March 3, 1776, when they sailed to the Bahamas and captured a British ammunition depot and naval port, Fort Montagu and Fort Nassau.

America’s first navy grew to over 40 vessels.

On August 4, 1790, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton recommended the creation of the Revenue Marine, later called Revenue Cutter Service.

It consisted of 10 ships charged with stopping smuggling and French privateers from operating in American waters.

The Revenue Marine’s first seven masters (captains) were commissioned by President George Washington on March 12, 1791. The Revenue-Marine was the only armed maritime service of the United States till the Department of the Navy was created in 1798.

During the U.S.-French Quasi War of 1798, eight Revenue Cutter vessels were among the 45 American ships that served in combat.

The Marines were recommissioned on July 11, 1798. The Marines fought in the Barbary Wars, “to the shores of Tripoli,” against the Muslim pirates of North Africa, 1801-1805, 1815. (And in my favorite movie “The Wind and The Lion” the Marines marched in in their dress blues and mowed down all the guards of the Pasha and freed Mrs. Pedecaris from the Raisuli.)

Marines fought courageously in future American conflicts, as in the War of 1812, where they firmly held the center line of defense at the Battle of New Orleans, under the command of General Andrew Jackson.

The United States Revenue-Marine ships began intercepting slave ships from North Africa after the U.S. Government passed the Slave Trade Act of 1794.

Captured Africans had been sold at Arab Muslim slave markets since the 7th century, notably in Morocco, Algiers, Tripoli, Cairo and Zanzibar.

Beginning in the 15th century, Arabs sold African slaves to Portuguese merchants, followed by Spanish, Dutch, French and English merchants.

Arabs made slaves of Europeans they captured at sea or coastal towns.

The Ottoman Empire captured and sold about 2 million Russians and Polish-Lithuanians as slaves, most notably at slave markets in Caffa (Feodosia) on the Black Sea.

A 19th century account of the Arab-African slave trade was given by the missionary David Livingstone.

“We passed a slave woman shot or stabbed through the body and lying on the path, an Arab who passed early that morning had done it in anger at losing the price he had given for her, because she was unable to walk any longer.

We passed a woman tied by the neck to a tree and dead.

We came upon a man dead from starvation.

The strangest disease I have seen in this country seems really to be broken heartedness, and it attacks free men who have been captured and made slaves.”

David Livingstone estimated that each year over 80,000 Africans died before reaching the Muslim slave markets, writing to the editor of the New York Herald:

“If my disclosures regarding the terrible Ujijian slavery should lead to the suppression of the East Coast slave trade, I shall regard that as a greater matter by far than the discovery of all the Nile sources together.”

On January 1, 1808, exactly 55 years before Republican President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, Congress closed all U.S. ports to the importation of slaves.

The U.S. Revenue Cutter Service intercepted slave ships coming from Africa and freed nearly 500 slaves.

One such slave ship, the Antelope, was captured by the U.S. Revenue-Marines on June 29, 1820, off the coast of Florida.

To free the slaves, Francis Scott Key fought legal battles in their defense, spending his own time and money for seven years, arguing for the slaves’ freedom all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Francis Scott Key also gave legal help to John Quincy Adams in his 1841 fight to free slaves from the ship La Amistad.

The U.S. Revenue Cutter Service defended the United States in many major conflict, including the:

• Quasi War with France;

• War of 1812;

• Counter-Piracy operations;

• Mexican-American War; (From which “From the Halls of Montezuma” was added to the Marine Anthem.)

• Civil War,

• Spanish-American War,

• World Wars I and II.

In 1915, the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service was merged with the U.S. Lifesaving Service to form the U.S. Coast Guard.

The original anthem of the  Guard U.S. Coast was:

“To sink the foe or save the maimed,

Our mission and our pride,

We’ll carry on ’til Kingdom Come,

Ideals for which we’ve died.”

In 1939, the U.S. Lighthouse Service was merged into the U.S. Coast Guard, as was the Steamboat Inspection Service and Bureau of Navigation in 1946.

In 1967, the U.S. Coast Guard was transferred to the Department of Transportation.

President John F. Kennedy remarked aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Training Barque “Eagle,” August 15, 1962:  “This is a very ancient service in our country’s history. Its first father Alexander Hamilton, began the Coast Guard as a revenue collecting service, asked the Congress of the United States for appropriations for 10 vessels.

The first, Eagle, was one of our most distinguished warships, and in actions against privateers of France, captured over five vessels, and recaptured seven American vessels”

President Kennedy ended:  “This is the oldest continuous seagoing service in the United States, stretching back to the beginning of our country.”

Acknowledging that protecting the borders was a primary reason for the creation of the Federal Government, President Herbert Hoover stated December 27, 1929:

“A further proposal is the definite expansion of the Coast Guard in the matter of border patrol.”

Included in the list of casualties at the WWII Battle of Okinawa, President Truman stated, June 1, 1945:  “Navy and Coast Guard losses were 4,729 killed and 4,640 wounded.”  

At the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, September 20, 1952, President Truman stated:  “I was just reading about the Coast Guard’s icebreaker that has been closer to the North Pole than any other ship in delivering food and supplies to a station up there. That, my young friends, is what makes this country great.”

President John F. Kennedy continued his address aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Training Barque “Eagle,” August 15, 1962:  “You serve our country in peacetime, on ice patrols and weather patrols, in protecting the standards of the merchant marine, in protecting safety at sea and in time of war you, with the American Navy, as you did in World War II and at the time of Korea.”

At the U.S. Coast Guard commencement in New London, June 3, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson remarked:  “Winston Churchill once said: ‘Civilization will not last, freedom will not survive, peace will not be kept, unless mankind unites together to defend them and show themselves possessed of a power before which barbaric forces will stand in awe’. In every area of national strength America today is stronger than it has ever been before, It is stronger than the combined might of all the nations in the history of the world. And I confidently predict that strength will continue to grow.”

President Johnson continued:

“No one can live daily, as I must do, with the dark realities of nuclear ruin, without seeking the guidance of God to find the path of peace. We have built this staggering strength not to destroy but to save, not to put an end to civilization but rather to try to put an end to conflict.”

At a U.S. Coast Guard commencement, May 18, 1988, President Reagan stated to the Cadets: 

“It’s our prayer for you to serve America in peace. It’s our commitment to defend her in war.”

Ron

The Bible says: Psalm 42:2

“My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.”

Do you feel discouraged, dry, and weak, as if God has disappeared and you’re merely surviving? At times, the Father allows you to face a season when you feel defeated and spiritually parched in order to draw you closer to Himself.

Although you might think the desert experiences of life would drive you farther from the Savior, but they can actually mature your faith in Him greatly, like a lost child looking for his parents, you seek Him desperately, listen intently for His voice, and long for His presence.

You also cast off anything that would hinder you from finding Him. In fact, more than likely you’ll discover that when you don’t feel the Father’s presence, it’s because you’ve unintentionally become focused on something other than Him. You are distracted and no longer drinking in His marvelous presence. He’s not your first priority, so He creates a thirst for Him in you.

So return to the Lord and enjoy Him. it may take time to rebuild your relationship, but be assured, those who seek Him “shall be satisfied” (Mathew 5:6).

Prayer: ‘Lord, I am thirsty for Your wonderful presence. Restore our fellowship and help me experience Your love, Amen’.