Jerusalem [America] on Its Last Legs – Isaiah 3: 1-7, 12 MSG

“The Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
is emptying Jerusalem [America] and Judah
Of all the necessities, plain bread and water to begin with.

He’s withdrawing police and protection,
judges and courts,
pastors and teachers,
captains and generals,
doctors and nurses,
and, yes, even the repairers and jacks-of-all-trades.

Neighbor against neighbor, young against old, the no-account against the well-respected.

He says, “I’ll put little kids in charge of the city. Schoolboys and schoolgirls will order everyone around.

People will be at each other’s throats,
stabbing one another in the back:

One brother will grab another and say,
‘You look like you’ve got a head on your shoulders.

Do something! — Get us out of this mess.’
And he’ll say, ‘Me? Not me! I don’t have a clue. Don’t put me in charge of anything…’

…“Skinny kids terrorize my people.
Silly girls bully them around.”

My dear people! Your leaders are taking you down a blind alley. They’re sending you off on a wild-goose chase.”’

I think the Prophet Isaiah got it right, not only during the ancient days of Jerusalem and Judah but also for America.

When the youth rise up, as they are today, it is not a blessing but a curse. We are a Constitutional Republic, not a mob-driven Democracy. Yet the youth wants to dismantle the Constitution and Bill of Rights and influence our elected officials through flash mobs, riots, threats, and protests. They want to defund and disband police agencies.

Voting is our opportunity to protest how our country is governed and not through mob rule, mob mentality, and the threats of rioting.

The youth wants to see our government take away our right to keep and bear arms. The youth do not understand and know America’s history that our Second Amendment protects the cornerstone of all rights, which is the First Amendment, that no government shall prohibit the free exercise thereof; or abridge the freedom of speech.

When the left sends out the youth, it initiates the beginning of the end for our liberty and fundamental rights. The Progressive Left has unleashed their most dangerous weapon, the youth. They have ensured over the past 60 years of socialist indoctrination and lack of teaching that today’s youth have become the most uninformed and uneducated force in their arsenal.

The next several months, leading up to the November 8, 2022, elections, will be known as the Youth Summer and Jane’s Revenge, which has already spread across America, destroying pregnancy crisis help centers and the Catholic Church.

Jane’s Revenge is an American militant, extremist, pro-abortion rights group that has claimed responsibility for several acts of firebombing, vandalism, and arson, targeting pregnancy crisis centers, congressional offices, and Catholic Churches. Source: Wikipedia

A recent photograph was circulated of a young girl at a protest, holding up a sign demanding gun confiscation. Ironically, and in direct conflict with her new gun-grabbing beliefs, she was wearing a sweatshirt with the quote from the movie 300, spoken by King Leonidas: For those of you not familiar with the phrase: “ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ” (or in Latin script “Molon Labe”), which means “Come and take them!” It is what the Spartans reportedly said to the Persians when they were told to surrender their weapons.

In spite of the recent ruling by the Supreme Court, upholding the right to self-protection through concealed carry, States, such as New York, have just past new gun laws, circumventing the highest court in the land. Law-abiding citizens will be prevented to legally carry a gun, while the criminal are illegally armed to the teeth.

Public education is responsible for the indoctrination of our children. Our children have become the “useful idiots” of the Far Left.

Get your kids out of the public schools. Maybe the Coronavirus did us at least one favor in the closing down of schools. Train and teach your children yourself, enroll them into private schools, or they will increasingly become stooges of the Left and become the “Brown Shirts of Amerika.”

Wake up, people or the Youth will rule America.

We are not making history; we are DISAPPOINTING IT! With one important distinction, the 21st Century Church is nothing like the 1st Century Church. At least, not yet!

The early Church existed during the time of the Roman Army’s occupation of Israel and Judah, and especially the City of Jerusalem. The Roman Empire was the most influential world power at the time, corrupting the subdued peoples and cultures with idolatry and immorality.

Sounds familiar?

Our great and mighty nation is doing the same thing and replacing the God of our Fathers with the Power of the State and inflicting upon us its immorality, cancel culture, and wokeisim.

In addition, the early Church suffered tremendous threats and persecution, as well as death by the religious zealots. These religious leaders and their disciples were the Early Church’s main archenemy in most of Asia Minor countries and cities, as well as the more significant Mediterranean areas.

They wanted to silence the preaching and testimony of Jesus Christ and keep his teachings from spreading and ruining their religious influence, power, and control of the people.

Sounds familiar?

The LGBT- XYZ community and its religious zealots and political activists are trying to silence the preaching and testimony of Jesus Christ and keep his teachings from spreading and ruining their influence and control over the people and culture. They are trying to destroy Christianity by infiltrating our churches, ministries, schools, and organizations, including our Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and all wholesome cultural institutions.

How about the Islamic Extremists-Jihadists’ insatiable appetite for the blood of Christians and infidels?

The tables are turned, and this group of fanatics is threatening to wipe out even the Jews and all of Israel. And now it appears an alliance between the far left, including the Socialists and Marxists are, forming an unholy alliance with the Jihadists against Christianity and the Jewish people. Now the “enemy of my enemy is my friend” has again become the mantra, whereby two evils join forces to destroy their common enemy, which is you and me!

Sounds familiar?

All of the Apostles, including many of the Early Church Fathers and their families, were arrested, tortured, and murdered, not just because of their faith but more so because of their outspoken proclamation of their dedication to the Gentile Nations and Jews in Israel and beyond.

And let me add this one thing:

THEY WERE NOT ARRESTED, TORTURED, OR MURDERED WHILE PREACHING IN THE COMFORTS OF THEIR CHURCHES BUT IN THE MARKET PLACES AND PLACES WHERE UNSAVED GENTILE PEOPLE GATHERED.

I agree with John Zaste; our proclamation needs to go way beyond the walls and doors of our Churches. It is not enough to invite unsaved people to visit our Churches to hear the Gospel. Too many Churches are not preaching the Gospel anyway. Also, the past century has shown us that indoor Church preaching has done little to impact our culture, cities, and country.

Our nation has thousands of Christian universities and colleges. Still, these have not persuaded our government, influenced our politics or culture, or provided us with preachers like the Apostle Paul or the Apostle Peter.

We’ve squandered the Gospel by preaching it only to the choir!

The early Church would not have had the impact it enjoyed if it did not invade its culture and challenged the prevailing philosophies of its time. The early Church’s message would’ve petered out (sorry, Peter) had it confined and limited its services within its sanctuaries and preaching to believers. Oh, wait, they had no palatial buildings, steeples, or chapels. They had each other, and they met in their homes, and yet it was they that changed the world!

Christians, along with Jews and the Unborn, are being dehumanized. But not to marginalize us, but to ultimately murder us. The Evil of our age is out to destroy all who hold to the testimony of Jesus Christ and those who obey His commands. All those that value life and God.

Revelations 12:7

“…Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring–those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus.”

We need just a little more similarity.

“Rise and rise again until lambs become lions.”

Did you know that the prime role of a father is to create within their sons the ability to father?

If we are to become a good and healthy culture, we will make a society of self-governing men and responsible sons to become faithful fathers. But alas, most fathers are emotionally detached from their sons or leave them altogether. We are living in a time of prodigal fathers and detached sons, whereby the sons and fathers are both lost.

While growing up, I lived through this as a detached and lost son, and tragically, later in my life, I also became a prodigal father, emotionally detached from my children. When I became a father, it was difficult for me to become bonded attached to my sons and daughter. I abandoned my children’s need for a present father for the sake of fame and fortune, just as my father had done. I put my career above my children’s needs at a time in their lives when they needed me the most.

Before my father died, God put it in my heart to wrestle for his blessing. I desperately needed a miracle to happen.

Just four days before my father passed, we turned our hearts towards each other. His “I love you too, son” responses to my, I love you, dad, brought me back to life as a man and fulfilled my quest to become my father’s beloved son. It was as though I had placed my heart into my father’s and found it to fit perfectly.

More importantly, on the night of October 7, 1998, my father, in turning his heart towards me, made it possible for me to believe that I am also God’s beloved son. And frankly, this began a chain reaction, whereby in a few short years, I became the man I was destined to become and finally the father my children had longed for. It also profoundly changed me into the husband my wife, Toni, had prayed for.

This unique encounter with my dad changed the trajectory of my life and would eventually change the lives and the course of my children. A prodigal father turned his heart towards his son, and a lost son was found. God’s amazing grace healed not only a lost prodigal father but also a lost and broken son.

There is hope for lost fathers and lost sons.

See the movie “Warrior” With Joel Edgerton, Tom Hardy, Nick Nolte, and Jennifer Morrison. The youngest son of an alcoholic former boxer returns home. At one point in the film, the father, tormented by guilt and an inability to reach his sons, cries out:

“We’re so lost… …SO LOST!”

What they need is redemption and forgiveness. This is just what most of us need also. Watch the movie to find out whether they had succeeded.

In the latest of the Robin Hood movies, starring Russel Crowe, Robin, being the lost son of a forgotten father, rediscovers his past in the same town he was born. He recalls his painful memory of his father’s stand against tyranny. While he and his band of men are visiting his hometown, Robin removes a stone at the monument located at the town square, where he finds the imprint of his little hand next to his father’s. He places his now fully grown hand into his father’s imprint and discovers it’s a perfect match.

He also finds the same inscription on the underside of the stone he removed, which bears the same engraving on the handle of a sword he had earlier recovered. It says:

“Rise and rise again until lambs become lions.”

And it means never give up until the impossible happens.

Boys and men, never give up until the impossible happens! Seek out your lost fathers; fathers seek out your lost sons; seek them with everything you’ve got! Forgive them, love them, and change both your lives and destinies.

Keep rising until the impossible happens!