Call to Fasting and Prayer in 2008 - Fast-Day in Virginia in 1774

Greetings!

Today, I want to pass along a message that is relevant to us all (in the United States). We must be in prayer for this election. Take these ideas to heart...and take ACTION.

Be blessed!

Andy Johnston, Facilitator

musicsharegroup@gmail.com

http://musicsharegroup.blogspot.com

Dear Friends,

It seems as if every election we hear the words, "This is the most important election in…" I am sure I have been guilty of such statements in the past. Today, I don't believe I am going out on a limb when I say that this election is one of the most important of my lifetime, and possibly the most important.

Our nation is divided in so many ways. We see division in our churches, we see it politically, we see it socially and economically. We even see it in our families, as we now have so many single parent households. We have become a nation where most people are doing "what is right in their own eyes." This has become our "way." Truth is under attack, and deceit is coming from all sides where people are desperately trying to prove any point.

Friends, a house divided cannot stand!

Our way is destroying us. We live in the greatest nation on the face of the earth. We are and have always been a Christian nation. Yet, as Christians, we have stood by and allowed the world to divide us. We have become lethargic and act like a people defeated instead of a people who "can do all things through Christ who strengthens us." This election is about much more than politics. It is our future. Are we as Christians going to continue to stand by and allow our nation to be stolen from us?

John Quincy Adams, one of our founding fathers, said, "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." There are many things that can be said of our leaders in government, however “moral” and “religious” are two words that I would not use to describe most of them. It is imperative that we elect people who are moral and religious and who are willing to speak truth. People who are willing to stand up for what is right even at great personal cost. People who truly want to serve their fellow man and this country. Not people who lust for power and will let nothing stand in the way of their personal ambitions. This is especially true of the 2008 presidential election.

One event or one election did not take us to this moment in time where fear, selfishness and division rule. One event or one election will not get us out of it. Our Christian faith in action is the only thing that will make a difference.

2 Chronicles 7:13 "If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people, 14 and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

Our ONLY hope is in the Lord. It is time for us to unite in prayer and fasting for our future and for the future of our kids. We need to pray for this nation, pray for unity, pray that each and every candidate for office (local, state and federal) will come to know the Lord personally and base their decisions on the Living Word and the wisdom of God. Pray that all deceit will be exposed, no matter the source. Pray that truth will find the light of day. Pray that each and every candidate be willing to set aside personal desires, ambition and philosophy for the good of this nation and its people. Pray that the people of this nation set aside selfishness, greed and personal ambition. Pray that the people of this nation will humble themselves before the Lord and each other, that “at the name of Jesus every knee will bow… and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:10-11)

THIS IS A CALL TO ARMS!!! It is time for Christians to take a stand. I ask you to pray and fast with me over the election as you feel the Lord lead you. I specifically ask you to fast and pray on Sunday, November 2nd. I ask you to set this day apart as a day of fasting, a day to humble yourself before the Lord and each other. I ask you to pray devoutly to implore God to avert the heavy calamity which threatens destruction to our economic future and our civil rights. Pray against the evils of division. Pray that the Lord give us one heart and one mind firmly to oppose, by all just and proper means, every injury to our Christian and our American rights, and that the minds of our elected officials may be inspired from above with wisdom, moderation, and justice, to remove from the loyal people of America all cause of danger from a continual pursuit of measures pregnant to their ruin.

Strong words. I wish I could claim credit. The inspiration for these words comes from a book my friend and co-worker Andy recently purchased titled The Christian Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States by Benjamin F. Morris. This book is inspiring and a reminder of what can happen when we take a stand, and what can happen when we fast and pray and humble ourselves before God. I have provided a portion of Chapter 22, “Fast and Thanksgiving Days,” pages 652 to 654.

RISE UP AMERICA and BE STRONG IN THE LORD.

Imagine what a difference we can make if the Christian community set aside our differences and united in fasting and prayer. Anything is possible! Please use this e-mail or any other means to implore your family and friends to fast and pray. Imagine what could happen if instead of eating lunch on Sunday, we all shared communion instead. That is my plan personally. I beg you to join me!

Yours in Christ,

Bob Erwin

bob@leeresources.com

Greenwood, SC

Fast-Day in Virginia in 1774

At the beginning of the great conflict for liberty and an independent nationality and government, Mr. Jefferson—who, whatever were his peculiar views of the Christian system, always acknowledged the government and providence of God in national affairs—recommended in Virginia the appointment and observance of a day of public prayer and humiliation. In June, 1774, when the news of the Boston Port Bill reached Virginia, the Colonial Legislature, then in session, appointed such a fast-day for that colony. Mr. Jefferson’s account of it is as follows—

We were under the conviction of the necessity of arousing our people from the lethargy into which they had fallen as to passing events, and thought that the appointment of a day of general fasting and prayer would be most likely to call up and alarm their attention. No example of such solemnities had existed since the days of our distresses in the war of ‘55—since which a new generation had grown up. With the help, therefore, of Rushworth, whom we rummaged over for the resolutionary precedents and forms of the Puritans of that day, preserved by him, we made up a resolution, somewhat modernizing their phrases, for appointing the 1st day of June, on which the Port Bill was to commence, for a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer, to implore Heaven to avert from us the evils of civil war, to inspire us with firmness in support of our rights, and to turn the hearts of the king and Parliament to moderation and justice.

To give greater emphasis to our proposition, we agreed to wait the next morning on Mr. Nicholas, whose grave and religious character was more in unison with the tone of our resolution, and solicit him to move it. We accordingly went to him in the morning. He moved it the same day. The 1st of June was proposed, and it passed without opposition. The Governor dissolved us. We returned home, and in our several counties invited the clergy to meet the assemblies of the people on the 1st of June, to perform the ceremonies of the day and to address them in discourses suited to the occasion. The people met generally, with anxiety and alarm in their countenances; and the effect of the day through the whole colony was like a shock of electricity, arousing every man and placing him erect and solidly on his centre.

Washington, then a member of the House of Burgesses, sent a special message to his family and constituents to observe this day; and Mason, a distinguished patriot, also a member, “charged his household to keep the day strictly, and to attend church clad in mourning.”

WILLIAMSBURG, May 30, 1774

The House of Burgesses of Virginia, on the 24th of May, adopted the following resolution, which was directed to he forthwith printed and published—

Tuesday, 25th of May, 14th George III., 1774.

This House, being deeply impressed with apprehension of the great dangers to be derived to British America from the hostile invasion of the city of Boston, in our sister colony of Massachusetts Bay, whose commerce and harbor are on the 1st day of June next to be stopped by an armed force, deem it highly necessary that the said 1st day of June be set apart by the members of this House as a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer, devoutly to implore the Divine interposition for averting the heavy calamity which threatens destruction to our civil rights, and the evils of civil war, to give us one heart and one mind firmly to oppose, by all just and proper means, every injury to American rights, and that the minds of his Majesty and his Parliament may be inspired from above with wisdom, moderation, and justice, to remove from the loyal people of America all cause of danger from a continual pursuit of measures pregnant to their ruin.
Ordered, therefore, That the members of this House do attend in their places, at the hour of ten in the forenoon, on the said 1st day of June next, in order to proceed, with the Speaker and mace, to the church in the city, for the purpose aforesaid; and that the Reverend Mr. Price be appointed to read prayers and to preach a sermon suitable to the occasion.

By the House of Burgesses,
George Wythe, C. H. B.

Source: The Christian Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States by Benjamin F. Morris. Pages 652 – 654. Published May 2007 by American Vision, Inc. Available for purchase at www.americanvision.com.

What would Theodore Roosevelt think? (Off topic)

Greetings!

Politics are definitely off-topic for this musician-oriented blog. But, since I'm writing, I've decided to make an exception! Actually, this post deals more with our culture than our political landscape. I found it enlightening and I thought it was worthy of a place on this blog because we're all impacted by the changes in our culture.

The title of the article is "TR - Where RU?" and the writer, Rick Marschall examines our political and cultural climate in the light of more than a few quotes from Theodore Roosevelt. I believe we need to recapture a moral consciousness in our country. It seems that we would do well to learn from the wisdom of this great American, Theodore Roosevelt.

TR - Where RU?
By Rick Marschall

Oct 27: the sesquicentennial of Theodore Roosevelt's birth. Many things changed in America during TR's lifetime: he was born 150 years ago, just before the Civil War commenced, and died just after World War I ended. When he became president, the Wright Brothers had not yet flown their fragile craft; in the War to End All Wars, TR's youngest son Quentin was killed in an aerial dogfight over the French battlefields.

It is a tired cliché, though no less true for it, that the changes that have occurred over 150 years have been astonishing, perhaps without parallel in history. My friend Wade Mainer, the country music pioneer, is approaching his 102nd birthday, and he finds more people asking him about the days before radio and TV (or rural electricity) than about his musical influence on American folk arts.

Somehow people gravitate toward the tangible aspects of life when they wonder about changes - the comforts, the appliances and conveniences, the gadgets. Perhaps it is harder to grasp (and certainly more troubling to process the implications of) intellectual, spiritual, and sociological changes. Wade, born in 1907, grew up in a very different America than we know.

To a greater extent, Theodore Roosevelt might scarcely recognize the America of 150 years since his birth. To the extent he would recognize it, he would grieve - and likely be incensed by - the nation we have become.

If TR had not been a US president, he would yet be prominent in American history for any of a number of achievements. He was a first-rank historian; several of his works remain the standard works in their fields. He was a world-class naturalist, a specialist in obscure areas like bird calls and protective coloration; he discovered species and collected specimens for the American Museum of Natural History, where a wing is now dedicated to him, and charted an unknown river in Brazil under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution. He was an authentic cowboy during the short-lived period when there were real cowboys in a real Wild West. He rode ranges for days at a time, herding cattle, and once tracked and captured a trio of horse thieves. As Assistant Secretary of the Navy before the Spanish-American War, he ordered the Pacific Fleet to Manila, thus setting up the greatest naval victory in American hi story; when war was declared he volunteered and led his regiment, the Rough Riders, up San Juan Hill in the most colorful battle of that short but decisive war. Criticized as a warmonger, he was extremely proud of the fact that none one bullet was fired in conflict during his presidency... and he was the first American to win the Nobel Peace Prize. As a hunter he pursued game for sport, food, skins, and study; as an outdoorsman he advocated for the environment, and as president set aside millions and millions of acres of wondrous parklands for protection and posterity.

But TR was president, one of our best. If he was not the greatest president, the reason might be that there were no major crises during his tenure, and that might be due to his own foresight and leadership. Yet he possibly was the greatest man who served as president. "The Most Interesting American" was one of many descriptions showered on Theodore Roosevelt, but he likely would have said there was no greater compliment than simply to be called an American.

TR has become, with Lincoln, the favorite president to name as a favorite: JFK, Reagan, Clinton, Bush, and McCain all hailed Theodore Roosevelt as a role-model. Remarkable: across the aisle, across the spectrum, across the years. Yet despite the praise heaped upon him, TR would scorn most aspects of American society today and, possibly, scorn today's leadership class and their policies.

On this 150th anniversary of Theodore Roosevelt's birth I will let this assertion stand against not the cartoons and photographs in our history books, nor the dates and honors in his biography. TR's forceful words - always carefully composed, and colorfully clear - are the best records of his core beliefs. They serve as advice to an America that is changed indeed from the one he left us - a measure, surely, of changes: changes made and changes needed.

An overlooked aspect of Theodore Roosevelt is his spiritual side and the essential component, he believed, of America's well-being:

"We are the citizens of a mighty Republic consecrated to the service of God above, through the service of man on this earth. We are the heirs of a great heritage bequeathed to us by statesmen who saw with the eyes of seer and prophet. We must not prove false to the memories of the nation's past.... Let us care, as is right, for the things of the body; but let us show even more that we care for the things of the soul."

One of TR's scores of books was titled Fear God and Take Your Own Part; another was Foes of Our Own Household, its title taken from Matthew 10:36. He is credited with creating the term Muckraker, describing corruption-watchdogs; yet he was quoting Bunyan's Christian classic, The Pilgrim's Progress, portraying the man with the muck-rake as one who cynically looks down in the mire rather than raising his eyes to the positive and encouraging truths. It is fair to say that if, in TR's day, a foreign power would have threatened to outlaw religious expression in America, or ban Bibles and prayers in public places, TR would have mobilized the Rough Riders again to do battle against such outrages. I posit that today, he would seethe no less against a handful of brigands in judge's robes who are systematically imposing thought-control and denying free speech and the exercise of religion in our land.

"We've got to watch out for those who offer to be crooked on our behalf."

Politicians who prattle about the Middle Class should make us suspicious. If they are willing to pander to this one class, patronize another (the "lower class"), and denigrate a third (the "upper class"), members of all classes should lock their doors and hide their pennies. Not forgetting that the ruling class of politicians and media elite are all economic upper-classmen anyway, we should heed TR's observation that anyone willing to suppress one group in order to serve yours, is fully capable and congenitally certain to betray you when the next mood suits. Why do no politicians make the promise to exercise justice to ALL classes? Surely that should be the aim of every public servant. TR called it the Square Deal.

"The distinguishing feature of our American government system is the freedom of the individual; it is quite as important to prevent his being oppressed by many men as it is to save him from the tyranny of one."

TR's reforms cast the government in the role of referee on some issues, but never a womb-to-tomb dictator. Perverted by his distant cousin Franklin and distorted by succeeding generations of Marxians and socialists, the policies of Theodore Roosevelt were formulated to allow individuals to rise or fall according to their own merits and a clear playing field. Americans' current sense of entitlement, fostered by liberals and nanny-state commandants, regards private initiative - and personal responsibility - as shameful opinions deserving criminalization. Usually the people who yell the loudest about "knowing their rights" have never read the Constitution. Terms like "fairness," "privacy," "capitalism," and even "democracy" - and the sins committed in their names, like the "right" to abortion on demand, by opportunistic politicians - are not mentioned in the Constitution. America is a Republic, not a Democracy.

"I despise a man who surrenders his conscience to a multitude as much as I do the one who surrenders it to one man."

Politicians do everything for the taxpayers except get off their backs and stop picking their pockets. TR entered politics when a young man to fight corruption; his first battles as a state legislator in Albany were fighting the system and bosses of his own party. Sometimes he voted against "pork" for his own district, and he reached across the aisle (to a reform governor, Democrat Grover Cleveland) to champion clean-politics measures. Through his life was a practical politician, but also a maverick, even leaving his own party when a presidential nomination was stolen from him. (He ran as an independent, the Progressive, or Bull Moose, candidate - the last time a moose was prominently named in a campaign - and finished second... but ahead of the Republican.) He put country first. And his last political battles were against corruption and high-handed Washington tactics, little changed from the beginning of his career, yet worth the fight. There are parallels to at least a couple of today's candidates...

"Without honesty, popular government is a repulsive farce."

TR prided himself on being able to compromise and accomplish great things. But we should be proud to recognize that he was someone who did not compromise with evil, and never sacrificed his integrity. If he were to return to Washington today, the only place he would find integrity is in a dictionary.

"If on this new continent we merely build another country of great but unjustly divided material prosperity, we shall have done nothing; and we shall do as little if we merely set the greed of envy against the greed of arrogance, and thereby destroy the material well-being of each of us."

Generations of a welfare-state mentality has conditioned Americans to believe the government owes them everything, that health care is a right, that housing is a right, that prosperity is a right. Freedom is a gift from God, not a governmental favor. TR was a student of history, not just a maker of history, and knew the consequences of the National Anthem being displaced by cacophonous whines and demands. He would see - and thunder against! - the inevitable results of a society saturated with rampant drug use and pornography; the suppression of religious expression and promotion of homosexuality; where half the marriages end in divorce and half the babies - those, that is, not the victims of infanticide - are born and raised outside a traditional family unit; where illiteracy is growing, not declining; where obesity is as common as the sniffles (remember his book The Strenuous Life?); where there is an indifference to a virtual invasion of illegal aliens; where students are spectacularly illiterate and lag behind scores of other countries in math and science skills. None of these trends are unique in the history of great civilizations - but every single type of these things contributed to decay, despair, and downfall of previous societies. TR believed America was a special place, but not, however, specially immune from the laws of civilization and decay. Ideas have consequences, he knew, and so do policies.

"Aggressive fighting for the right is the noblest sports the world affords."

This review began with a reminder of TR's spiritual moorings. We can close this birthday celebration with words of his that are more frequently quoted - however just as often ignored, today, to America's shame, and, perhaps, her doom. These were the last words he wrote, delivered to a meeting his death prevented him from addressing:

"There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag, and this excludes the red flag which symbolizes all wars against liberty and civilization, just as much as it excludes any foreign flag of a nation to which we are hostile. We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language, for we intend to see that the crucible turns our people out as Americans, of American nationality, and not as dwellers in a polyglot boarding-house; and we have room for but one soul loyalty, and that loyalty is to the American people."

A nation's destiny cannot turn on one election. If it were so in 2008, may God help America, because we elect men and women, not saviors. And properly so: since we have chosen to operate democratically, we get what we deserve. Under Washington and Lincoln and TR, America, with all its imperfections, happily accepted that dictum. Today, despite all our "progress," getting what we deserve should make us anxious in the extreme.

In every election of my lifetime, I have heard people say - first adults around me; then my peers; finally myself - that they suppose they'll vote for the lesser of two evils. Such are the fruits, evidently, of democracy. If we truly believe that both candidates, or both parties, are evil, we should dissent from the system and decide in some way to be aggressive fighters for the right.

In the meantime, however, it is a screaming necessity to appreciate what we used to have in this nation... to examine every aspect of the mess we're in... and to act, somehow in some way, personally and persuasively, to address the situation. We have squandered the gifts of God; we have dishonored the patriots like TR who nurtured and advanced it. May God help us indeed.

One last word from Theodore Roosevelt on this, his birthday, as the national elections draw nigh: "A vote is somewhat like a rifle - its usefulness depends upon the character of the user."

Rick Marschall
Swartz Creek, MI
AmericaCiv@aol.com

May be reprinted and forwarded without permission

This article was originally published in Rare Jewel Magazine and was distributed via email on October 24, 2008. For more information about Rare Jewel Magazine, you may contact their customer service department:

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Birth Announcement!

Greetings!

I haven't posted lately and here's why:




















Ian Andrew Johnston is here! He was born in the early morning hours of Sunday, October 19, 2008. He weighed 8lb 8oz and was 21 inches long. He was born super fast...the doctor broke her water at 2:16am and he was born at 2:30am. This is our third child. We have a son named Asher (almost 4 years old) and a daughter named Claren (2 and a half).

Life is precious and sweet. God is good! Oh, by the way, I think I'm overdue to write a review of my new guitar (Taylor T5-S1). I also came across some more great free resources that I'll pass along. But for now, I'll spend a few days welcoming Ian into our home.

Be blessed!
Andy Johnston, the Facilitator

musicsharegroup@gmail.com
http://musicsharegroup.blogspot.com