Scripture

A Prayer for Sandy Hook

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Dec 172012

By Matt Barber

In light of the horrific developments in Newtown, Conn. – developments so sorrowful that no words will do – I felt it only appropriate to pull my regular column for this week. I offer, instead, the only words I can at this inexpressibly mournful time: A simple prayer. ~ Matt Barber

Please come, Lord Jesus.

Come, King Jesus.

Come soon I pray.

Yet, even still come now, Holy Spirit, until such time.

We need You.

As the banked fish gasps for that which, without, she will surely die, so too do we gasp for living water-fused crimson that flows freely from Life’s pierced side.

The people of Sandy Hook assuredly cannot endure without Your supernatural grace.

Give them grace and comfort pressed down and running over.

There are things so wicked we cannot bear.

There are things manifestly beyond our understanding. Things of which, and perhaps for our own sake, You have kept from our grasp.

Such a thing is this.

We cry out, Abba, Father!

Torrents we weep for the families of Sandy Hook.

Our souls groan for the people of Sandy Hook.

Our spirits are broken for the babes of Sandy Hook.

Hold them close, dear Alpha and Omega – the great I Am.

Comfort them.

Love them.

You are the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father but through You.

Show this to all who are alive in flesh but dead in spirit.

Show them Life in death and that Life is You.

Reveal Truth and Life in the Spirit despite death in the flesh.

You are the Way.

Pull near to your bosom forever the precious slain of Sandy Hook.

Let our lips say, “Oh, death, where is your sting?” – even until our hearts believe it.

There is no hope save You, oh Christ, and, save us, can You alone.

Evil triumphs, so it seems, sovereign Lord.

Do they mock You?

So they try.

But You will not be mocked.

Let us rest assured that vengeance is Yours, Christ Jesus.

Darkness consumed this man, and so he did the liar’s bidding – Satan’s work.

Cowards.

He has not escaped Your justice.

The enemy of the world will not escape Your justice.

But for Your bounty of blood, who can escape Your justice?

Yet, for those who believe, Satan’s ransom is paid in full.

Let us, even now, hear the laughter of our beloved Sandy Hook babes – hidden most high – while, at length, they play together, joyfully, at your nail-pierced feet.

Thank You, Jesus!

Thank You, Jesus, for John 1:1, which proclaims, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Thank You that the Word is with the bereaved of Sandy Hook.

Thank You, Jesus, for Matthew 11:28-30, which summons, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Oh, Christ, give rest to the most weary and burdened of Sandy Hook.

Thank You, Jesus, for Matthew 5:4, which vows, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”

Only You can comfort those beyond worldly comfort.

Comfort them, King Jesus, we plead.

We wait upon You, Lord Jesus.

We remain still.

Until You return, King Jesus.

And You will.

Oh, and how You will.

It is in Jesus’ name; the name of all names – the name at which demons shudder and both saints and angels rejoice – that I pray.

Amen.

Matt Barber (@jmattbarber on Twitter) is an attorney concentrating in constitutional law. He serves as Vice President of Liberty Counsel Action. (This information is provided for identification purposes only.)

God Will Not Be Mocked

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Nov 132012

By Matt Barber

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. ~ Abraham Lincoln

America has forsaken her first love. She has finally, and fully, given herself over to a licentious Lothario with whom she has increasingly flirted since her youth. He is sin – and, notwithstanding full knowledge of who he is and what he intends, with him she has lain.

America has tasted the poisonous fruits of lust, pride, passion, and envy – sloth, frivolity, iniquity and entitlement. She has tasted of their sweet deception and found it irresistible. She has danced in the streets, intoxicated by the very poison that will be her undoing.

America has rebelled against God. She has shaken her fist at Him and arrogantly cried, “We don’t need you. We don’t want you. We know better than you. Now go away.”

And so He’s going away.

Hosea talks of judgment against the nation that “plays the harlot” before God: “Though they bring up their children, yet I will bereave them to the last man. Yes, woe to them when I depart from them!” (Hosea 9:12)

I grieve for my children. I grieve for America’s children. Evil won on Tuesday. An arrogant and rebellious nation has chosen, for her leader, an arrogant and rebellious man, whose arrogant and rebellious party has, as Pastor John MacArthur put it, “adopted the sins of Romans 1 as their platform.”

“This is a new day in our country,” he lamented. “Parties that used to differ on economics, now differ dramatically on issues that invade the realm of God’s law and morality.”

We have mocked God.

God will not be mocked.

“Millions of Americans looked evil in the eye and adopted it,” wrote Liberty Counsel’s Mat Staver the day after the election. “Abortion, same-sex marriage and immorality carried the day.”

Indeed, evil carried the day. America has willfully chosen a Democratic platform – a Romans 1 platform – upon which to stand. We have chosen a party that thrice denied God, and then returned his name in vain – amid deafening boos – to its platform.

God will not be mocked.

America has chosen a party that demands every taxpayer be complicit in the federally funded slaughter of the pre-born. We have exalted a party that seeks to – and in many was ways has already done so – enshrine into law the celebration of sexual deviancy and mock marriage.

The haughty peoples of four states have said to God, “Marriage is as we say it is, not as you have ordered it.” And so, though removed from truth, as east is from west, they have, at the ballot box, affirmed moral disorder.

Indeed, they have invited God’s wrath. Our president has invited God’s wrath. We all, through act or omission, have invited God’s wrath.

“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” (Romans 1:18-20)

Yet excuses we give.

We excuse sin. We call that which God calls an abomination, “equality.”

We call that which God calls murder, “reproductive choice.”

We call that which God calls theft, “fundamental fairness.”

We “call evil good and good evil.”

America is divided and her president the divider. The scales have tipped. The 51 percent – the takers, the God-deniers and the subversive, now outnumber the makers, the seekers of righteousness and the patriotic.

Yet, soon after the election results were announced – after several hours of deep mourning for our nation, I found myself smiling. I found myself singing praises to the Creator of the universe: Christ, the way, the truth and the life. Jesus, Y’shua, the very image of God.

Indeed, I found myself experiencing joy.

Through it all, you see, He remains sovereign. His will is being done, even when it is not our own. He is faithful, though we are not. Victory is His. We are His. And so victory is ours.

Those of us who believe needn’t win every battle – any battle – to which we are consigned. We need only remain obedient. We need only remain faithful to his Word and to his commands. We need only remember that “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

Truly, though God has given over a rebellious nation to the party of Romans 1, we remain the people of Romans 8: “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” (Romans 8:1)

Still, there will be condemnation for America. Things will get far worse before they get better – if they ever get better. As individuals, we will each stand before God and give an accounting – we will all face judgment. As a nation, we can only be judged in the temporal – in the here and now.

Have we reached the point of no return? Perhaps – perhaps not.

God is faithful. He has promised: “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14)

Christ is faithful. He has promised: “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.” (Matthew 7:24-25)

The rain is descending. The floods have come and the winds beat down on our great nation. I am thankful that our forefathers, wise men indeed, built America’s house upon Christ, the Rock.

Matt Barber (@jmattbarber on Twitter) is an attorney concentrating in constitutional law. He serves as Vice President of Liberty Counsel Action. (This information is provided for identification purposes only.)

PLEASE PRAY Every Night for U.S. Election – 9:00 p.m. ET (8 pm CT, 7 pm MT, 6 pm PT)

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Sep 242012

Please join brothers and sisters across the continent – praying every night for our soldiers and the U.S. Election, Tuesday, November 6 – ONE MINUTE EACH NIGHT! 9:00 P.M. Eastern Time (8 PM Central, 7 PM Mountain, 6 PM Pacific)

An email forwarded from a friend had this text;

“This is the scariest election we as Christians have ever faced, and from the looks of the polls, the Christians aren’t voting Christian values. We all need to be on our knees.

“Do you believe we can take God at His word? Call upon His name, then stand back and watch His wonders unfold. This scripture gives us, as Christians, ownership of this land and the ability to call upon God to heal it. I challenge you to do that. We have never been more desperate than now for God to heal our land.

“2 Chronicles 7:14. ‘If my people, which are called by my name shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.’

“During WWII, there was an advisor to Churchill, who organized a group of people who dropped what they were doing every night at a prescribed hour for one minute, to collectively pray for the safety of England , its people and peace. This had an amazing effect, as bombing stopped.”

David B. Thompson looked into the England prayer event in June, 2004, when the story was brought up as a model for praying for our troops and peace in the Mideast, and wrote on his blog (http://randomruminations.net/1104/minute-of-prayer/) :

“I investigated this after I got the e-mail about it, and hope this gives you some of the info you’re requesting. –http://www.thesilentminute.org/index.php?menu=1 specifically, http://www.thesilentminute.org/article.php?sid=1&PHPSESSID=5f948303c2ae20acbd7a1ae19806db55

“John Ross, president of Daybreak Communications, Inc., received three separate similar emails on the peace prayer subject from friends. That initiated his interest to investigate the matter more. He found out from a United Kingdom website that the original “Big Ben Silent Minute” was a peace prayer initiated by Wellesley Tudor Pole, a major in the British Army. During World War 2, all over Britain and the Commonwealth, millions of people joined together every evening in a silent minute to pray for peace. After reviewing the situation, Ross and his national religious communications firm decided that America needed to know more about “The Silent Minute.” They, therefore, launched www.thesilentminute.org and www.thesilentminute.us on Thursday, March 30 at 9 a.m. (Eastern Time). Ross is hopeful that this specific prayer time can bring a peaceful conclusion to the current Iraq war. He would like to see American and world religious leader endorse “The Silent Minute” and that Americans would continue the grassroots prayer email campaign. Daybreak Communications, Inc. is a Chicago-area publicity firm specializing in fax and email distribution of religious news releases by The The Religion Wire?. — Hereamisendme 21 June 2004, 08:45″

The U.S Silent minute URL no longer appears active – but there is a United Kingdom website talking about the “Big Ben Silent Minute” and a current prayer for World Peace at http://www.thesilentminute.org.uk/. This organization was established by Ms. Dorothy Forster, who restarted the Silent Prayer in England following 9/11.

Wikipedia also tells the story with a little more detail: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Minute

The note from my friend continued, adding the additional concern for our current election to the previous war concerns:

“There is now a group of people organizing the same thing here in America . The United States of America , and our citizens, need prayer more than ever! If you would like to participate, each evening at 9:00 P.M. Eastern Time (8 PM Central, 7 PM Mountain, 6 PM Pacific), stop whatever you’re doing, and spend one minute praying for the safety of the United States, our troops, our citizens, for peace in the world, the upcoming election, that the Bible will remain the basis for the laws governing our land, and that Christianity will grow in the U.S.

“If you know anyone who would like to participate, PLEASE SHARE THIS!

“Someone said if people really understood the full extent of the power we have available through prayer, we might be speechless. Our prayers are the most powerful asset we have.

I have not yet found the group of people who are organizing the current effort, but it really doesn’t matter. Despite the opinion of Snopes, there doesn’t need to be anyone organizing it. The fact that Christians are interested and responding with prayer is all that is important. If only two Christians responded to the email with prayer, that would be all that was necessary.

Matthew 18:19-20 (NIV): 19 “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”

Two sincere Prayer Warriors is all that is required. But when there are hundreds of thousands of us – well, that much stronger.

This site has a PDF that you can use to print off little cards for friends, encouraging them to pray… https://www.bigescape.info/Prayer_Life/ONE_MINUTE_EACH_NIGHT.pdf

Please pass this on to anyone who you think will want to participate. ~ Email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Thanks!!

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Should They be ‘Turned In’ for Mentioning the Name of Jesus?

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May 292012

Please Pray for a town that honors God: Should a school district be ‘turned in’ for daring to mention the name of Jesus Christ at graduation? A person close to me was aghast that Jesus Christ was prayed to at a High School Senior’s graduation – which included both an invocation and a benediction. He told me that it was clearly unconstitutional and that something should be done about it. He said that it won’t be long and the town will be forced to stop it. He also questioned whether seniors were forced to go to the Baccalaureate the week before as well. He was assured that they weren’t, but only a couple of them chose not to go.

I had never even been to a baccalaureate before and didn’t know what one was until just the last week. I thoroughly loved it. I thought it was absolutely wonderful and the community seems to like and support it; there doesn’t seem to be any complaints.

Well, the Baccalaureate was a choice then.

Of the graduation itself – I told him I didn’t think that the pastor had even mentioned the name of Jesus at graduation. But he assured me that the pastor had. He said he was specifically listening for it – and that the Pastor had ended the prayer with “In Jesus’ name.”

I asked him if he planned on contacting the ACLU. I also asked him whether an outsider has a right to come into a community and tell them what they can or can’t do with their children in regards to Jesus Christ.

He then wavered and said he wouldn’t contact anyone, but that sooner or later someone will. He reiterated that the Supreme Court has deemed it unconstitutional.

Wow. Being turned in for mentioning the name of Jesus Christ. Our nation is getting scarier all the time.

He is a member of a Unitarian church, and has admitted to me before that yes, he and his friends are extremely intolerant of Christians. He had to think about it when I first asked him this last year, and then decided it was true because, he said, people at his church are horribly ashamed if their children become Christians – and the church practically mourns with them. And he said he would be ashamed as well if one of his children were to become a Christian.

It made me a little afraid that when he gets back to his politically active church he would tell his friends about the “backwards” event he saw and that one of those people might try to start something.

So – having loved how Jesus Christ was so thoroughly included – I would just like to ask for prayer for protection over this town and high school, and their choice to honor God throughout their graduation ceremonies.

Petition Delivered: Please Pray for Veronica and other Children Hurt by ICWA -

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Jan 262012

Save Veronica Petition

Praise God for all that has been happening over the last month. While we grieve for 2-yr-old Veronica who was taken three weeks ago from the only home she has ever known, she has been blessed with national attention – unlike many other children whom this has happened to. This has brought the issue of ICWA to the forefront.

Tuesday, “Save Veronica” went from one government office to another delivering a petition with 20,000 signatures from supporters asking that Veronica be returned home and that the ICWA be changed to protect children.

Governor Haley of South Carolina and Rep. Tim Scott’s office empathized with the family.

For those who are concerned about this being a case involving a birth father – let us clarify;

The adoption wasn’t finalized because the tribe had intervened, but M&M were ‘parenting’ Veronica from the moment she was born. They were at the birth. The bio-dad was not. Matt cut the umbilical cord – the bio-dad did not. Melanie stayed in a room at the hospital where she could parent/mother Veronica right away. The bio-dad did not. The bio-dad made no effort during the pregnancy or after birth to contact or support the mother, and made no real effort or request to see the little girl at any point in her life. She had never met him up until the evening she was handed over to him in the attorney’s office. The judge had allowed only ½ hour for Veronica to meet this man before he was free to take her. But it took two hours for the transfer to complete because she kept crying for M&M every time they tried to leave the room.

Matt and Melanie are the only parents she has ever known.

Had South Carolina law been applied to this case, the bio-dad would not have had any standing. By state law, he has essentially abandoned her and would not have had any parental rights. This is a law meant to protect adoptive parents and children from being bounced around like ping pong balls. He had also signed a paper sometime after her birth giving up any claim to her. But after Veronica had been with M&M for four months, he changed his mind and because he has a small percentage of Cherokee heritage, he was able to get the tribal attorney involved.

Matt & Melanie are emotionally devastated.

We are praying for Veronica. The State Supreme Court has accepted their appeal. It might take months though for them to hear the case. Knowing how hard it will be for a 2-yr-old to #1) remain away from the only parents she has ever known for months – and #2) how difficult it will be for her to make the transition back if she has been gone for months and then they win the case – we are praying for God’s mercy on Veronica and her parents. As crazy as this sounds, I am praying for a miracle – that Veronica be allowed to go home today, if not tomorrow.

Lord, in the name of Jesus, please return this baby girl to Melanie’s arms.

- We also have a family going to court this Friday, January 27th, who really needs prayer for their little boy.

Please pray for both these families.

But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Luke 18:16

The Birth of Jesus Christ – Luke 2:1-20

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Dec 242011

The Birth of Jesus
In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register.

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

The Shepherds and the Angels
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

Luke 2: 1-20 (NIV)

The Dominionist Manifesto

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Sep 072011

By Matt Barber

There has been great gnashing of teeth in “progressive” circles of late over “Christian Dominionist Theology.”

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow has warned that much of the Republican presidential field embraces this startling, seditious sect of extreme fundamentalism. She’s breathlessly warned that Christian Dominionists “believe they have a direct line to God” and intend to “clear the way for the [end of the world]…by infiltrating and taking over government.”

The Daily Beast/Newsweek chimes the tocsin with a hard-hitting, brilliantly penned – though deeply disturbing to all who love freedom – investigative piece headlined: “A Christian Plot for Domination?”

Author Michelle Goldberg warns that Mrs. Bachmann and Mr. Perry are deeply entrenched in a “little-known movement of radical Christians” who are preparing “an army of God” to “commandeer civilian government.”

But it gets worse. It’s much bigger than all that.

Kyle Mantyla with the atheist group “People for the American Way” has been warning for months now that this organized craze of underground Christians plan “to take dominion over, literally, seven specific facets of modern life in order to wrest control away from Satan and his demonic spirits so that Christians can put them to use in bringing about God’s kingdom on Earth.”

Now, you may laugh. You may think these anti-Christian “Dominioners” like Maddow, Goldberg and Mantyla – these fearless progressives risking all to sound the alarm on the rising threat of Christian Dominionism – are just a bunch of liberal, tinfoil hat-wearing kooks.

You might believe they’re merely a left-wing gaggle of tattooed, body-pierced pot-brownie pies in pajamas, no different than 9/11-truthers, global-warmers or Holocaust-deniers.

Oh, you may suppose these liberal Dominioners – daring beyond measure – are simply a batty band of anti-Christian bigots and Daily-Kos-, MSNBC-types looking to smear Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann and other GOP presidential hopefuls as a bunch of clandestine theocrats bent on Christian world domination.

Think again.

They’re right.

It’s true–all of it.

Stop snickering.

Stop it, this is serious!

I can no longer toe the line. I can no longer remain silent while my Christian Dominionist brethren, numbering in the tens-of-millions, deny our very existence.

What exactly is Dominionism?

Heard of the Illuminati? Skull and Bones Society?

Pansies.

Well, Dominionism is kind of like that except, whereas those pseudo-“subversive” societies are merely “super-secret” – Christian Dominionism is level-nine “super-duper-secret,” sealed in blood with the whole “hope to die,” “thousand needles” thing to emphasize we mean business!

Dominionism’s ultimate goal? Christian New World Order or bust, baby!

I’ll get to the manifesto part, but first, some housekeeping: Liberal Dominioners – though remarkably accurate in spite of so very little “actual information” – are way off on one thing. They think Dominionism was launched decades ago by the likes of Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and James Dobson.

Wrong.

Dominionism Theology was, in point of fact, the supernaturally-breathed, prophetically-inspired vision of Big Chimney West Virginia’s very own Floyd “Snorty” Flubinowitz. (Snorty’s Taxidermy, LLC, corner of 9th and Vine behind the Piggly Wiggly.)

All hail Snorty!

Central to Dominionist Theology are the “7 Mountains of Influence” wherein Dominionist Theologians encourage Christians – Christians! – to positively influence our culture by getting involved in (1) Arts and Entertainment; (2) Business; (3) Education; (4) Family; (5) Government; (6) Media; and (7) Religion.

I know, right?

But it doesn’t end there. Liberal Dominioners – vigilant as they are – don’t know the half of it. They’ll be horrified to learn that there are actually “8 Mountains of influence” (Snorty kept one to himself in case the other 7 were discovered); “6 Pyramids of Supremacy”; and, “32 Molehills of Utter Despotism.”

Moreover… crud, my word count’s going over. Um – the manifesto, right. Well, here it is basically: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you…” or be summarily waterboarded.

Matt Barber is an attorney concentrating in constitutional law. He serves as Vice President of Liberty Counsel Action. (This information is provided for identification purposes only.)

Ray Comfort’s Blog: “The Soap Box”

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Mar 222011

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