You walked in the snow at Valley Forge, boots that were rotting off your feet. You watched your friends die of hunger or cold, but you believed.

You charged across the fields at New Orleans catching the British vulnerable as they come ashore, up until the time musket ball took your life, you believed.

You served an artillery piece at Monterey watching your cannon balls bounce harmlessly off the stone fortifications. General Taylor urged you on, and as you succumbed to malaria, you believed.

You stood on little round top with Colonel Chamberlain and while your buddies and your ammunition dwindled, you could not help but believe when the Colonel sounded Charge! That belief didn’t end when the rebel bayonet found your lungs.

You were a proud 17 year old shoveling coal into the maw of the boilers for the USS Maine. You believed in the great white fleet, and that belief never faded when the explosion took your life.

You were a sergeant in the Army, leading 45 other men over the wire to take out a machine gun outside of Metz. You believed even after watching that same machine gun strike down twenty of your men. When the Germans changed belts on that gun, you fell too.

You came ashore at Iwo Jima, and believed until that mortar round landed on the beach, right beside you.
You were a helicopter pilot pulling out wounded marines at Khe Sanh, and until enemy fire took out your controls and you watched your ship plummet to the ground, you believed.

You were a medic with an infantry company loaded in a Humvee. You believed up to the point the IED killed everyone in the vehicle.

You are the American fallen. Throughout the history of our land, there have been brave men and women who have believed in this country, something greater than themselves. They take up arms in defense of their families, their farms, their faith and the American ideal. They believed that; “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” You laid down your life so that others might live.

This weekend we take a day off work, and remember your sacrifice. We pray that another does not have to sacrifice like you did, but when they do, we will honor them too.
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As an American, it is my hope that we live up to the dreams and aspirations of those thousands of men and women who stood at the brink and were pulled over for our sake. May we honor them, and keep this country free and may the torch of Liberty forever burn.

This post will upset some people, but please note, I’m not posting it to upset you or to start a war.  I am posting this as a warning.  We are headed down a path that the final outcome is only pain and corruption.
 
In order to get into my thoughts, we need two definitions, for tolerance and terrorism:
 
From Webster, the definition of tolerance, “sympathy or indulgence for beliefs or practices differing from or conflicting with one's own.”  I have also heard it defined as, “the acceptance of that which is abhorrent.”  Either one works.
 
Also from Webster, the definition of terrorism, “the use of violent acts to frighten the people in an area as a way of trying to achieve a political goal.” 
 
So the watch word of the day for the politically correct is tolerance.  We are supposed to have tolerance for illegal or undocumented immigrants, we are supposed to have tolerance for Islamic refugees, we are supposed to be tolerant of men who want to use women’s bathrooms, and we are supposed to be tolerant of people who want to marry somebody of the same gender.
 
If it stopped there, I think our country could handle it.  But it doesn’t stop there.  If somebody objects to illegal immigrants, they are labelled as intolerant, racist and evil.  They are reviled in society, in the press, in their workplace and in social media.  Those who want people to be tolerant, use violent acts, that are winked at, when used for the correct political purposes.  How about those opposed to same sex marriage, there have been people run out of business, fired, black balled, and run out of town using labels, lawsuits, and economic threats.  The President of the United States threatens to take away federal school lunch money if local school districts do not bow down to his view of sexuality, as expressed in regard to the choice of rest room a child makes.
 
We are a country who is being terrorized.  We are under attack by our own countrymen.  They used violent acts to enforce a political end.  Fear has become rampant in the workplace, in social media, and in mainstream media.  You may say that the actions are not terrorism, but are lawsuits that deprive a family of income and equity, isn’t that a violent act as viewed by the family? 
 
The bottom line for me is the pervasive frame of mind that thinks that if one child, out of millions feels inadequate or uncomfortable going into an elementary school bathroom that we should allow that child to use whatever bathroom they want.  They don’t consider the discomfort that the other children feel.  They don’t understand the angst that is felt by the parents.  They don’t understand.  They don’t want to understand.
 
Political correctness has turned into an idol of the political class.  It is set higher than God, and reigns supreme.  All must bow down to this “entity.”  Look what the Bible says in 2 Timothy 3, “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days.  People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,  without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,  treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—  having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.  They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over gullible women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires,  always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.”
 
This makes it perfectly clear.  Those who are not truly submitted to the Kingdom of God, and those who reject God will “work their way into homes and gain control over [the] gullible.”  It is our Christian resist, as it says in Ephesians 6:11, “Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.” 
 
I will not stand for the schemes of the devil, and I will call them out as I see them.  I will also work hard to love every person, for they are the children of God. 
 
Heavenly Father, help me see the schemes of the devil as they are attempted on my family and my house.  Show me the way to resist.  Lord, You are my Shepherd and my Rock, and I will always find refuge in Your Fortress.  Give me strength to call evil as evil, and good as good.  In Jesus’ mighty name, Amen.

I’ve never been so convicted of something in my life.  Our nation, the United States of America, once the most successful, most highly respected country in the world, is in decline.  It isn’t because of outside influences, we have done it to ourselves.  We have done it by rejecting the absolute moral righteousness that comes from God, and have instead installed our own Temple of Tolerance.
 
This Temple of Tolerance routinely sacrifices the pieces of society that are deemed too radical or wrong for the politically correct Tolerant Society.  The first sacrifice was prayer in public schools.  Next was the sanctity of the unborn.  It quickly turned to other liberties, privacy, civility, and even our own history is under attack, and is slated to be bled dry upon the Altar of Tolerance.
 
The Bible is clear about what happens when man creates his own idols and starts to worship them.  Correction, catastrophe, and a return are the historical cycles we as human beings create for ourselves.  We have felt the correction, and have not heeded the word, we are now on the verge of catastrophe. 
 
Our Heavenly Father understood our nature and he gave us a spiritual panic button we can use to get his help when our communities and nation fall away.  “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 I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” – 2 Chronicles 7:14
 
Father, we have sinned.  We as a nation, as a state, and as a community have turned away from you.  We have set ourselves up on a pedestal and have proclaimed our superiority to you.  We were wrong.  I am sorry for the sins I have committed, as well as those of my family, my community and my entire nation.  Lord, help me correct what has been done.  Help me be a voice of reason.  Help me be a point of light.  We need you, we need a close relationship with you.  Help us understand your will and your wishes for our land and our lives.  Father, hear us, see us try to do better, and as your word says, come and heal our land.  In Jesus’ mighty name, Amen.

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My wife and I are starting a new six week bible study series concentrating on Prayer for Our Nation based on the bible study I published two years ago on Amazon.  If you are in the Middle Tennessee area, please join us!

 
It’s been a couple weeks since I had a couple facebook debates about Andrew Jackson and the $20 bill.  The United States Treasury decided to move President Jackson from the front of the $20 bill to the back and put Harriet Tubman on the front of the $20 bill.  I support this action.  I think our money is a canvas of our history and we have many stories that can be told that way.  I would also like to see Ronald Reagan on the $50 bill, and JFK on the $10.  However, my consternation and the root of the debates was the need to run President Jackson through the sewer in order to “justify” taking him off the front of the bill.
 
Andrew Jackson was the 7th President of the United States.  He founded the Democratic Party and was a staunch supporter of the common man.  These are things to celebrate.  He was also a slave owner, and oversaw the relocation of a number of Indian tribes causing great loss of life.  These are things to remember and make sure they never happen again.
 
It is a truism that history is written by the victors.  Man spends much of his time proving his own inhumanity, and as the victor, these inhuman actions are frequently ignored and forgotten.  However the trend is now to measure historical figures not against their own time, but against the political correctness of today.  This changes history, this changes the meaning and deprives us and future generations of the ability to learn the lessons, both good and bad, of those times.  Revision for political purposes turns history into propaganda, and learning into indoctrination.
 
Take a look at scripture, in John 7:18,  “Whoever speaks on their own does so to gain personal glory, but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him.”  Isn’t God involved in all affairs of man?  Why would we seek to change the story of what was written, but to glorify ourselves?
 
One of the two facebook debates I had turned ugly.  A fellow Christian threw these words at me, “Just so we're clear! If you think it's ok to support and revere Andrew Jackson, you don't know Jesus, and you may as well be a nazi!”  And this, “Look you go on pretending to be a Christian and dragging Jesus name through the mud dude.  What an embarrassment! Total fake!  You don't have a clue who Jesus is! There's no way!  its impossible! Your fruit is war and hate!”  At the end of that last sentence I asked him if he was done and he unfriended me.  I have not reached out to him, but I forgive him and pray that he finds the love of Christ and understands that we are IN this world, not OF this world.
 
During this time of oppression and denial, we as Christians, need to keep an extra helping of grace available to use.  I could of handled that discussion better, but I don’t think it would have ended any differently.  Let me ask this question, are you a Christian if you only support the aspects of Christ that appeal to your particular political leaning?  And as a second question, haven’t we all been guilty of that at least at some point?
 
The bible says we will be cursed to remove or add words.  By denying or ignoring parts of the scripture we are trying to impose our own will on the word of God.  That is dangerous indeed.
 
Heavenly Father, thank You for Your love and forgiveness.  I ask You to forgive me when I have not believed the full body of scripture.  Forgive me for when I wanted to change Your word or Your intent to fit my own desires.  Help me know You and Your word as they are.  I want to know You better, and I want to be able to share Your love and freedom with my fellow man.  Holy Spirit use me to help others know You better.  In Jesus’ mighty name, Amen.