Jason Moore gave a lesson at church a couple of weeks ago that I have been doing a lot of thinking on. He called it "5 Secrets To Secret Time" and I thought it was excellent. I even preached it last Sunday night. It has helped me a lot in my prayer life so I thought I would share them with you guys in hopes that they might be beneficial to you as well. I'm just going to list them for you and maybe you can make conclusions as to just how these five secrets are completely classic!
1) Prayer is the ultimate cure for hypocrisy.
2) Prayer raises my "God consciousness" (awareness of God)
3) Prayer is my best tool for making radical change.
4) Prayer is the only communication that is always perfect, available, and effective.
5) Prayer time is a time saver.
At some point in everyone's life there will come a ceremony of some kind in which you will be asked to stand and pledge your allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. This is something that I have grown quite used to and become very comfortable with doing. At least I have been comfortable with doing it in the past. Im at Florida College now and one tradition that the school has is that every day after chapel we pledge allegiance to the flag. One day while doing this as I looked around at this huge group of awesome christians who were doing this in unison, I asked myself a very simple question: "Does God approve of what we are doing right now?"
Now I believe that is a question that we should all ask ourselves personally at various times of our day. But I especially think that it should be considered when a huge group of God's children are together and doing something with one accord.
Well in asking myself that question, I led myself to asking another question: "Is the nation that I am pledging my allegiance to in good standings with my King"? And the answer that I came to is a big, fat, sloppy, juicy, OBVIOUS NO! This country as a whole is filled with a lukewarm and apathetic spirit toward's God and His commandments. And God hates that(Rev.3:14-16).
It is generally accepted in the political world that if a candidate running for office claims to cling fast to God's commandments no matter what the consequences might be, he might as well be committing political suicide. Why? Because the people of this nation do not want to hear about God and His omnipotence. They simply desire to be in complete control and want president that will act in a way that is in their own best interest.
So in turn, that seems to be the direction that this country is headed towards. If someone wrongs America in any way... we bomb them! Kill them! Dont worry about not resisting an evil person or loving your enemies. Dont worry about the fact that the Lord has already claimed vengeance. Lets take it for ourselves. If you decide suddenly that you dont want your baby that you are 5 months pregnant with, no problem, we'll kill it for you.
Anyone who tries to resist these types of things is viewed as an irrational extremist. Why? What is an irrational extremist to the people of our country? The best I can tell it is someone who refuses to live his/her life for themselves, but lays it as Christ's feet, and submits themselves to His will no matter how contrary to society it may be.
So, this has been lengthy but let me conclude with stating that I definitely acknowledge that we are to be submissive to the government as long as they do not conflict with the laws of God(Rom.13). But that alone does not require extreme patriotism or a love for my country. I do not feel right pledging allegiance to a nation who is so far outside of God's will, it cant even be identified. Any thoughts?
right i totally agree with rom. 13 and being subject to the government... but is that synonomous to being a patriot? does being submissive to the government mean that we pledge allegiance to its flag under no matter what the status of the nation is? what does the phrase "under God" here mean? is it talking about the hierarchy of creation? because obviously we are all under God in that sense, but in the sense that this nation as a whole loves the Lord and subjects itself to His laws, then this nation is not under God.
i guess my problem is that i think that there is a line to be drawn between being subject to the governing authorities, and pledging our allegiance to something that almost stands in direct opposition to what our God's will is...
I think the confusion surrounds the word allegiance. We tend to look at it as service to a cause/person because we agree with it/him. But look at the real meaning of the word. Webster's, "(1): the fidelity owed by a subject or citizen to a sovereign or government." See the difference? It appears to me that allegiance to your country is what Romans 13 demands. However, certainly allegiance to the Lord comes first and takes precedence over country, but it is still owed in my opinion.
Dude, I dont know why that last part was in green. Also, I don't know about Paul being a patriot, but he used his Roman(killed him for his beliefs) citizenship to his advantage beginning in Acts 16 and in appealing to Caesar.
You know, by the nation's standards, we would seem unpatriotic if we didn't say the pledge. But by God's standards, we wouldn't. We should pledge our allegience to one who is God. God's standards matter, this nation will be done away with. Where will we be spending eternity? This is just temporary, so all we do on this earth, is temporary. Yes, we are subject to the government, but that doesn't mean every single little thing. If that makes sense! Just a thought!
And another thing, I think we take every thing way too literally. Yes, God tells us that we are to obey what the government sets forth, plain and simply, such as paying taxes or driving under the speed limit. But when our nation, the world that God once destroyed for being so evil, then where do we draw the line? Sorry, you just got my thoughts flowing!
dude, as a radical opinionated extremist, i do not half-heartedly agree with you, but not knock your door down with abounding consent...Nowhere in the Bible can we prove that disloyalty to your country is a sin...like you said, yeah, follow all the rules and what not and blah blah blah, but no one said you have to like the country...for one, this country's foundation, itself, is evil...don't get me wrong...i like being free...but we english chaps came over here and killed the natives who owned this country...our ancestors were great jerks...and then when the British tried to do the exact same thing to us, we acted like it was an outrage...we're thieves and hypocrites...of course, when I said "we" i mean our ancestors...but still, why pledge our loyalty to a country which was won by sin and murder? the only place we should devote our loyalty to is God...a piece of cloth doesn't compare...i wipe my buttocks with cloth, but i don't salute it...
God causes the rise and fall of all Nations, I can't think of a better country to live in really though, there is one Kingdom that is truly important to me
right and i agree that we should definitely be thankful because i cant think of a better country to live in either. also, i dont believe that romans 13 was applicable to the people of that time and not to us... i definitely think that romans 13 is applicable to us also. so my issue isnt really if God approved of the roman empire... but if we just read the text i dont really see anything about patriotism, or pledging our allegiance to the nation itself. i feel like we are citizens of a much higher kingdom so why pledge our allegiance to this inferior kingdom that is practically in opposition to our citenship of the greater one?
i believe that in most aspects we are blessed to live in this nation which calls for a spirit of thankfulness to God. but that is, of course, concerning our relationship between us and God and not between us and the country that we reside in
1 you're like a dream come true...2 just wanna be with you...3 girl its plain to see that you're the only one for me and...4 repeat steps 1 through 3...5 make you fall in love with me...If ever i belive my work is done then i start Back at 1 ...yeah eh yeah
actually, i was thinkin about how dumb that song is...step 4 is to repeat steps 1 through 3, right? well if everytime you get to step 4 you're repeating steps 1 through 3, then you'll never get to step 5...that doesn't make since...
I don't even "Pledge Allegiance to the United States of America" I just leave that part out and continue with "to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God [omits 'indevisible] with liberty and justice for all."
Things are great, thanks! How about you? Are you still enjoying it down there?
Yeah, John is a cool guy, you need to pressure him to join pleonast. I went to a Weezer/Saves the Day concert with him and some other people when I was down there
we should definitely talk about this some time soon. I definitely want to run some thoughts past you and hear what you are thinking now. :) I am so encouraged by you!
Well it has been about 4 months since I last posted anything on pleonast and I have no reasonable explanation. The last update I gave to you guys was that baseball was approaching its end and that I was excited about the summer. Now summer vacation has come and gone and I am back in school. Thanks to so many awesome people, this last minute idea was made a reality. I love it when the love of Christ manifests itself through His own servants. There were about seven or eight people who basically put me on there back and carried me to Florida College in Tampa. I am doing very well and am so blessed to be surrounded with the people that I have been surrounded with over the last few weeks. I am really enjoying my experience at FC so far and I am anxious to spend more time with these awesome peeps. I miss all my folks back home though and should be seeing you guys really soon... hopefully I'll be able to post again before 4 months is up!
