Wade's Weekly Word

In the 1870’s DeWitt Talmadge preached a sermon titled, “The Ballot Box”. His eschatological view of the future was not one of optimism or pessimism, but one filled with “gospel hope”. As he continued in his ballot box sermon, he shouted, “We cannot live under any other form of government than that under which we are living. The stars of our flag are not the stars of thickening night, the stars sparkling amid the red bars of mourning cloud. Let the despotisms of Asia keep their feet off the Pacific Coast! But the tyrannies of Europe keep their feet off the Atlantic Coast! We shall have in this country only one government, and on this continent only one government. At the south, Mexico will follow Texas into the Union, and Christianity and civilization will stand in the halls of the Montezumas, and if not in our day, then in the day of our children, Yucatan and Central America will wheel into line of dominion. On the north, Canada will be ours, not by conquest, for English and American swords may never clash blades, but we will simply woo the fair neighbor of the north, and she will be ours, and England will say to Canada, “You are old enough now for the marriage day. Giant of the West, go take your bride.” Then from Baffin’s Bay to the Caribbean there shall be one republic, under one banner and with one destiny - a free, undisputed, Christianized American continent. God grant it. Amen!

There is more to a good confession than the one we are to make when we have sinned against God or others. All confessions fall into two basic categories: confessions of faith and confessions of sin. Confessions of faith are akin to oaths of allegiance. They are public acknowledgements of fidelity to God, and to the truth which God has revealed. They are declarations of unqualified confidence in Christ, and of surrender to His service. Confession of faith implies joining one's voice harmoniously to the voices of others, in common affirmation of belief.

In Ephesians 1:3, Paul said that we have been “blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.” Like Mary, we are “highly favored” by God, and “uniquely blessed” by Him. The descriptive phrase, “all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus,” suggests the size, the substance and the storehouse of our blessings. What an inventory!

Covetousness is so serious because it precipitates ruin of the soul by installing an idol in our hearts. Paul will say, in reflecting on the tenth commandment, “Covetousness is idolatry” Colossians 3:5. Why? Because idolatry is about worship and worship is simply about value. Worship is our response to what we value most.

In pre-Nazi Germany, many Christians were under the false assumption that they had to go along with whatever their civil rulers demanded. For decades before the rise of Adolph Hitler, German Christians were subjected to arguments like the following from pastors and theologians: The Gospel has absolutely nothing to do with outward existence but only with eternal life, not with external orders and institutions which could come in conflict with the secular orders but only with the heart and its relationship with God.

Philip Schaff, a noted church historian, writes: “The Reformation of the sixteenth century is, next to the introduction of Christianity, the greatest event in history. The Reformation was, at its heart, a recovery of the true gospel of Jesus Christ, and this restoration had an unparalleled influence on churches, nations, and the flow of Western civilization."

“In 2020, the gap between Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden was just seven million votes. The real story lies in the margins of victory in swing states, where an average of 60,000 votes per state determined nearly 40% of the electoral votes needed to win,” Barna emphasized. “In this context, the 32 million regular churchgoers who won’t vote in 2024 is a gamechanger.”

The politics of envy and guilt is nothing other than class hatred and war. It is a blight on the soul, a rottenness eating at the foundations of culture. No society can long survive it: the nation that fails to overcome it through faith and obedience will fall. It is the sociology of Satan. It is but a step away from hell.

The majority of millennials would prefer to live in a socialist, communist or fascist nation rather than a capitalistic one, according to a new poll…. The most popular socioeconomic order was socialism, with 44 percent support. Communism and fascism received 7 percent support each.” Millennials need to wake up to the reality of TANSTAAFL! In case you are too young to understand what this means, the acronym stands for, "There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch." It was a popular adage amongst us Baby-boomers communicating the idea that it is impossible to get something for nothing. Wake up to TANSTAAFL before you help turn America into a George Orwell, type "Animal Farm" where all the animals are equal, except some animals and they are more equal than others!

Because of the bad trade that millions of Americans have made – trading the Truth of God for the Lie of the enemy and believing that we can be our own “truth-makers” rather than “truth-receivers”; our own life-determiners, destiny-makers, and new-world, new-age builders without any help from the one, true and living God, we are creating a hell on earth.