Christmas, New Years, and Monumental

     Okay, I missed two holidays and want to post about Kirk Cameron's "Monumental", so I figured I'd do it in all one post.

     First, Christmas.
     During Christmas, there's always a lot of talk about having "the Christmas spirit". But when you take God out of Christmas, there isn't much of a good spirit to have. Christmas, of course, is the time of year that is set aside to celebrate Jesus' birth. But why is it so important to celebrate His birth? Because Christ didn't just come to be born of a virgin. He came to save the world from their sins. He came to shine light into the darkness, to "seek and to save that which was lost". That means that He came to die on the cross. But that wasn't the end. Christ ultimately came to defeat death and sin. His resurrection from the dead was just that. So, first, he was born of a virgin. Then, after his ministry, he took on the burden of all of mankind's sins on the cross. And finally, He rose again in victory over that death and sin! And that is where the true Christmas spirit comes from - the ultimate gift, God's own Son!
     The first thing my family did for Christmas was go to Sight and Sound's play "Jonah" with our grandparents. It was really amazing! I don't really know how to describe it... it had a really good - and strong - theme, too. It was about being freed from chains of your own making. And for a book of the Bible that ends with the main character being so selfish, they wrapped up the play really well. If you can possibly go see it, I definitely recommend.
     Also for Christmas, my family stayed at my Grandmother's. We were planning on having a big party at her house, but that party was pretty much cut in half because of the snow. But I didn't mind so much. I was so thrilled that the snow came just in time for Christmas! For the whole week before Christmas, I wasn't too sure it would snow. And I absolutely hate so-called "green" Christmases. I don't know how they are in places, like, say, Florida. But in Pennsylvania, a "green" Christmas is really a grey Christmas. So when the snow fell, my sisters and I all went outside - some of us even in our bare feet - to enjoy it. Some of us made snow angels, and we all just plain "romped" in it.
     Other than snow, we also went bowling, decorated, and, of course, wrapped and opened gifts. One thing every member of my family received was gift cards to Barnes and Noble. So, on New Years Day...

     Second, New Years Day.
     My family spent New Years Day in going to Barnes and Noble. Since I recently got my permit on my 16th birthday, Dad let me drive. Mom wasn't too impressed, but I think she is a little more settled about it all after my older sister's turn at learning to drive.
     So, we got to spend a few hours at Barnes and Noble. At first I was a little discouraged because the books that I was really looking for weren't in stock. But then I found Johnny Tremain. And then all of a sudden, all of these books I've wanted to read started popping in my head :D. After a bit of searching, I ended up leaving with "Johnny Tremain", three books by Elizabeth Gaskell, "King Solomon's Mines", "Boy Meets Girl" by Joshua Harris, "Oliver Twist", "When God Writes Your Life Story" by Eric and Leslie Ludy, and Monumental (the DVD).
     When we got home, we played a game that Dad had got (Would You Rather...), and then had dinner and watched...

     Thirdly and Lastly, Monumental.
     So, after going to Barnes and Noble, we all watched Kirk Cameron's Monumental. It was really good. Growing up with a Dad who's really into history, especially American, I have had access to a lot of good history books and other things. But I still learned from Monumental. For instance, I did not know that when the Pilgrims left for Holland, the men were separated from their wives and children. I didn't know about the storm the men were caught in, or about its miraculous stop. And the monument they went to see in Plymouth that Congress built... it was all amazing. It was sobering, encouraging, and challenging. It was sobering to see how far from the principles of our founding America has come, and where other nations in history - such as Rome - have ended up after becoming much the same as our own society has. But it was encouraging that we have such rich history that we can point to, and that our God is a God of mercy. If we will only look back, perhaps we will move forward. That's the challenging part. To not just sit back or be involved in the blame game. To instead see how this country was made, realize the Providence of God in our history, and then move forward with that knowledge. And then, to cry out with the Pilgrims "You can save us even now!"
     If you haven't seen it already, I recommend this to you, too. It was just incredible.

So, I hope all of you had a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

In Christ Alone,

 

July 4th

     I know I'm a little late, but I hope you all had a good 4th! In honor of the occasion, I finally decided that I'm going to post the Declaration of Independence. As you read it, please note the many references to God.

The Declaration of Independece

     IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776

     The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

     When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

     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. -- That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, -- That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. -- Such has been the patient suffrerance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

     He has refused to Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

     

     He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and     pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

     He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

  

     He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

     He had dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the  people.

     He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause  others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

     He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

     He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

     He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

   

     He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

     He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

     He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

     He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

          

     For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: 

     For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

     For cutting off our Trade with all the parts of the world:

     For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

     For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

     For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

     For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies: 

     For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

     For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

     He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

     He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

     He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

     He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

     He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

     In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

     Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

     We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Georgia:

     Button Gwinnett

     Lyman Hall

     George Walton

North Carolina:

     William Hooper

     Joseph Hewes

     John Penn

South Carolina:

     Edward Rutledge

     Thomas Heyward, Jr.

     Thomas Lynch, Jr.

     Arthur Middleton

Maryland:

     Samuel Chase

     William Paca

     Thomas Stone

     Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:

     Goerge Wythe

     Richard Henry Lee

     Thomas Jefferson

     Benjamin Harrison

     Thomas Nelson, Jr.

     Francis Lightfoot Lee

     Carter Braxton

Pennsylvania:

     Robert Morris

     Benjamin Rush

     Benjamin Franklin

     John Morton 

     George Clymer

     James Smith

     George Taylor

     James Wilson

     George Ross

Delaware:

     Caesar Rodney

     George REad

     Thomas McKean

New York:

     William Floyd

     Philip Livingston

     Francis Lewis

     Lewis Morries

New Jersey:

     Richard Stockton

     John Witherspoon

     Francis Hopkinson

     John Hart

     Abraham Clark

New Hampshire:

     Josiah Bartlett

     William Whipple

     Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:

     John Hancock

     Samuel Adams

     John Adams

     Robert Treat Paine

     Elbridge Gerry 

Rhode Island:

     Stephen Hopkins

     William Ellery

Connecticut:

      Roger Sherman

     Samuel Huntington

     Oliver Wolcott

In Chist Alone,

 

Memorial Day

I know I'm about a week late, but I would like to say a big thank-you to all those who have served in the U.S. Military, and to remember those who have and are no longer with us. Thank you for being willing to lay your life on the line to preserve America's freedom!

In Christ Alone,

Monumental

Kirk Cameron, an actor from Left Behind and Fireproof is now directing and producing a new movie called Moneumental: in Search of America's National Treasure. Watch the trailer below:






This is something that all Americans need to see. So often these days, American citizens just do not know why our nation was founded, or what the principles upon which it was founded are. This country was founded upon biblical principles, yet what is happening? Our history is being re-written to no longer include these facts.

Sometimes the only way forward is to go back.

Oh, I would like to recommend a course on the U.S. Constitution. It is a free, 10-week course that is being put out by Hillsdale College to learn about the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. Here is the link: http://www.hillsdale.edu/constitution/

In Christ Alone,