NOTES ON SPEAKING THE TRUTH IN LOVE: AMERICAN MYTHS VS. THE VISION OF JOHN WESLEY AND THE CIRCUIT RIDERS

SCRIPTURE. “So that we are no longer children [spiritually immature], tossed back and forth [like ships on a stormy sea] and carried about by every wind of [shifting] doctrine, by the cunning and trickery of [unscrupulous] men, by the deceitful scheming of people ready to do anything [for personal profit]. But speaking the truth in love [in all things—both our speech and our lives expressing His truth], let us ‘grow up in all things’ into Him [following His example] who is the Head—Christ.” – EPHESIANS 4:14-15, AMP

QUOTATIONS

EDWARDS. “If the heart be chiefly and directly fixed on God, and the soul engaged to glorify Him, some degree of religious affection will be the effect and attendant of it. But to seek after affection directly and chiefly; to have the heart principally set upon that; is to place it in the room of God and his glory.” – Jonathan Edwards, ‘The Life and Diary of David Brainerd,’ 1749; edited

FAULKNER. “Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world…would do this, it would change the earth.” ― William Faulkner, Graduation Speech at his daughter’s school, University High School, Oxford, Mississippi, 1951  

JOHNS. “To just know a truth is not enough. First, you must understand. And it requires bravery from two people. One to speak it. And one to listen.” ― Ana Johns, ‘The Woman in the White Kimono,’ 2019

DK. And a third, I dare to add, to actually ‘live it!’

1. FIRST THOUGHTS

In some ways, I must confess right up front that this Commentary is simultaneously: First, ‘a polemic’ on what this well-known and often cited passage truly, doctrinally speaking, means; Second, ‘an apologetic’ in some self-defense that occasionally speaking strongly or even severely is not necessarily hate speech in this present Age of Apostasy.

As with so much of what I write these days, I once more take the American Church to God’s Royal Woodshed, to give it a good whuppin,’ in order to restore some sanity to a doctrine that has been brutalized by the ‘American Gospel’ to the point that I don’t think we could recognize truly ‘speaking the truth in love’ if it bit us straight in the bum!

Bear with me while I try to explain.

CHRISTIAN ROMANTICISM. I will argue here that American Christianity has increasingly developed a ‘Doctrine of Romance’ over the past two generations, or what some observers refer to as ‘Therapeutic Christianity,’ or in its more bizarre forms, ‘Emo-Faith.’ This is where the Church overemphasizes “How we are feeling” as over against ‘How we think.’

Here is perhaps the most articulated spokesman for this Model of Christian Faith in a book titled, ‘The Sacred Romance’ (1997), by popular Christian writer and therapist, JOHN ELDREDGE. Often arguing in nearly medieval romantic phrases things like real men needing to “rescue a damsel in distress,” he offers this definition of our Christian Journey.

“Who am I really? The answer to that question is found in the answer to another. What is God’s heart toward me, or, how do I affect Him? If God is the Pursuer, the Ageless Romancer, the Lover, then there has to be a Beloved, one who is the Pursued. This is our role in the story.”

I realize that several of you, perhaps many of you, revel in this sort of language and imagery, but I do not. I am much more given to seeing the Christian Soldier as one who ‘sacrifices Self’ in the interests of our Warrior-King. Not one who is being “Romanced” by Jesus as if ‘I’ were the prize, and not Him.

I just wanted you to understand, again, right up front that in these Last Days, I have little time or patience with this, how shall I say it, “Love Affair” approach to God, though love Him I so do, to my very center.

More on this a bit later when we speak of True Biblical Love. For now, let us consider the incisive analysis by DR. P. ANDREW SANDLIN, Christian minister, cultural theologian, and author. He is the founder and president of the Center for Cultural Leadership in Coulterville, California, and De Yong Distinguished Visiting Professor of Culture and Theology at Edinburg Theological Seminary in Pharr, Texas.

• HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE. “Romanticism was an artistic phenomenon that spread over Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It affected different countries at different times and even influenced America by means of England. Romanticism in literature and other art forms was a reaction to what it perceived as the cold, structured, scholastic ‘Neo-classical’ art forms of the eighteenth century. We of the English-speaking world are most acquainted with the Romanticism of English writers like Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, and Keats. Romantic literature is marked by the exaltation of the individual and his feelings (as opposed to his reason); experimentation with new literary forms; a fascination with nature; use of the more common and less elitist forms of expression; and obsession with the bizarre and supernatural and demonic.

Heavy traces of Romanticism survive in Modern culture, and religiously they were manifested markedly in parts of Protestant Liberalism; they survive today in the conservative wing of Protestantism, including Pentecostalism, Fundamentalism, and Evangelicalism.” – “‘Christian’ Romanticism,” ‘The Forerunner,’ May 1, 2008; edited

• CHRISTIANITY TODAY. “Before the 19th century, the right kind of life was determined by how you conformed to the Bible or to nature or to reason or experience. But after Romanticism, the best life was the life in which you live out what you’re privately believing and feeling. This is the ‘Authentic Life.’ The ‘Inauthentic’ people try to please God or their parents or friends or the wider society’s expectations. The Authentic People are ‘true to themselves.’ They ‘follow their heart’ [as John Eldredge preaches with zeal] …

Today we hear this sentiment all the time: ‘Be true to yourself.’ ‘Bernie Sanders is not a regular politician; he’s authentic.’ When rock stars go wild on stage, ripping off their clothes and breaking guitars, we admire them, because they’re expressing what they really are. There’s even a name for this: ‘Expressive Individualism.’ You validate your unique individualism by expressing yourself, often wildly and bizarrely in public. The idea that it would be better to conform to standards of decency and order, better yet, God’s word, would just be to put a crimp on authenticity.” – “The Romantic Cult of Authenticity,” ‘Christian Culture,’ July 14, 2019; edited

IN SUM. What I see everywhere today is the translation of these ideas of Expressive Individualism (“Muh’ Rights!”) into the usurpation of the Traditional Canon, that regards true discipleship as nothing less than – wait for it – ‘Death to Self!’ How did the Apostle put it: “I die daily [I face death every day and die to self].” – 1 CORINTHIANS 15:31

I haven’t heard that idea preached in many American churches in a couple of generations.

1. ENTER TRUMP NATIONALISM

There has never been an American politician quite like DONALD TRUMP. One description of him captures his seemingly juvenile, yet savvy ability to accurately assess and manipulate the American emotional psyche.

DR. EDWARD SUGDEN is lecturer at King’s College in London, and Oxford University educated scholar specializing in the philosophy of history and international political theory. And yes, I am purposely following in the footsteps my progenitor Jonathan Edward’s unique combination of intellectual prowess with what Dr. Francis Schaeffer called ‘True Spirituality’ (1972).

TO THIS POINT. Who ever said that a Spirit filled Christian cannot at the same time be an ‘informed critical thinker’? Not me. Nor the Apostle Paul for that matter. Dr. Sugden, therefore, fires a broadside at the utterly degraded foolishness of today’s Church.

“In 2017 Donald Trump posted a clip of himself on Twitter wrestling an avatar of CNN to the ground. In the thirty-second vignette he seizes an individual with CNN’s logo where the head should be and pummels them. The point was to position himself as a defender of truth, flattening media enemies who spread disinformation about his reign …

[This sort of clownish ] Nationalist Populism is an odd phenomenon in the ways in which it creates alliances between voters who occupy structurally opposed positions. Trump has managed to combine support from the corporate world, Evangelical Christians, rural southerners and ex-union Democrats in a way that confounds existing psephological [quantitative political] models. Transcending, at least to some extent, distinctions between Left and Right, this [historic] ‘Alliance’ melds together the ultra-rich with the people they have actively disempowered …

That ‘emotions have displaced objectivity’ also explains Trump’s Post-fact World. In this universe it doesn’t matter whether a statement is true or false. Instead, the positive or negative feelings invoked by any given statement are taken as self-authenticating and total. The reaction of the audience is deemed legitimate ‘regardless of the content’ of the stimulus that provoked it. This is exactly how the WWE also operates. The authenticity of the scene is irrelevant: It is a known sham. What is significant is the power of the mass spectacle to create a shared mood of rage, a mood that can bring together the millionaires and those they have dispossessed.” – “Donald Trump and the Politics of Emotion,” ‘Open Democracy,’ Nov. 11, 2018; edited

Over the years of my matriculation as a university professor, I would very often insert in the middle of a lecture or written commentary: “CONTENT IS KING!” Followed by the Axiom, ‘Form is always servant to it.’ Always, beloved.

Yet today’s Church is filled with Emo-Pastors and Emo-Believers intent on getting all frothy every time they enter the sanctuary’s staggering emphasis upon Praise and Worship, followed by pathetically anemic sermons, as demonstration of the legitimacy of their faith.

Now as one who writes as a conservative Pentecostal, who has ‘frothed’ from time to time, it is The Canon and my life’s adherence to it that proves me – not how I feel!

THE QANON INFECTION. The ultimate expression of this seditious Trump Church Narrative is found in the frankly demonically inspired cult called “QAnon.” I have written of it before, so I shall not go over old ground – except to remind you that recent surveys calculate that there are approximately 41 million Americans who subscribe to this dark political vision.

“Most QAnon believers associated Christianity with being American and said that the United States risked losing its culture and identity and must be protected from foreign influence. Nearly seven in 10 believers agreed with the lie that the 2020 election was stolen from Mr. Trump.” – TIFFANY HSU, “41 Million Americans are QAnon Believers, Survey Finds,” ‘New York Times,’ Feb. 22, 2022; edited

The implications of this discovery are nothing less than seismic. It means that our Christian churches are filled with literally millions of ‘QAnon Converts’ who have effectively replaced Jesus Christ with Donald Trump. Yet the Pastors either don’t know this, or worse, they do know, but are hiding or ignoring it to keep the church doors open.

Listen to the Apostles’ searing warning about such practice.

“For [God does not overlook sin and] the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who in their wickedness suppress and stifle the truth, because that which is known about God is evident within them [in their inner consciousness], for God made it evident to them.” – ROMANS 1:18-19, AMP

MATTHEW HENRY INTERPRETS. “The sinfulness of man is described as ‘ungodliness’ against the Laws of the First Table [of the Ten Commandments, #1-3], and ‘unrighteousness’ against those of the Second [#4-10]. The cause of that sinfulness is ‘holding the truth in unrighteousness.’ All, more or less, do what they know to be wrong, and omit what they know to be right, so that the plea of ignorance cannot be allowed from any … For whatever may be pretended, as to the sufficiency of man’s reason to discover Divine Truth and moral obligation, or to govern the practice aright, ‘facts cannot be denied’ [with impunity]. And these plainly show that men have dishonoured God by the most absurd idolatries and superstitions; and have degraded themselves by the vilest affections and most abominable deeds.” – ‘Exposition of the Old and New Testaments,’ 6 vols., 1708-1710; edited

Therefore, I present to you THE AMERICAN CHURCH: Infested with Trump Nationalism, effusive, mostly mindless hyper-patriotic Emotionalism, increasingly gaslighted to higher and higher levels of the Strange Fire of Conspiracy madness, toward our own ‘Reichstag Fire’:

The Capitol Insurrection of January 6, 2021.

And if that characterization is true, we are surely headed to an ‘American Kristallnacht’ just over the horizon. Yes, beloved: I see a growing hunger among many white Americans to regard minorities, faithful Christians and observant Jews as threats to their New Order.

I tell you it’s coming, this “Night of the Broken Glass” to our cities, should Donald Trump’s stormtroopers rise again to power. Selah.

1. A PARENTHESIS

It is now late afternoon on MAY 24, 2022, ironically enough, on this the 284^th Anniversary of JOHN WESLEY’S dramatic ‘Aldersgate Conversion’ of 1738. I have just learned of the mass shooting that took place around noon, Central Time, at Robb Elementary School in the Latino-rich city of Uvaldi, Texas, at the hands of an 18-year-old male who gunned down and killed 19 young children and two teachers.

Why am I inserting this into our discussion?

TWO REASONS. One, a writer or teacher is never separable from the historic moment in which he writes, though the Church frequently does. Two, such carnage has everything to do with what I am writing today, and have been writing for over three years now.

To this admittedly severe point:

THE CHURCH is supposed to know why such tragedies are occurring and increasing in frequency and violence in our land. In addition, we are supposed to have ‘the answers’ to such carnage.

But we no longer do, beloved. We do not! Rather, we have jettisoned Moral Reason for Self-Indulgence.

SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. Willfully – I fairly shout this to our Pastors – Willfully, I tell you, by our grotesque negligence, cowardly neutrality, shameless avarice and by our empty, lifeless, blasphemously ‘lukewarm theology,’ we have effectively achieved TWO HISTORIC FAILURES:

• ONE: We have left the American Culture morally naked and existentially vulnerable to the despotic Rise of Neo-Fascism in our midst, rendering even our little children defenseless fodder for the Barbarians.

• TWO: In so doing, we have dared to hang Jesus back on that bloody Cross and declared that it really wasn’t necessary for Him to die at all (or us!), since our salvation is now earned at the visceral price of switching out our God for a demonically inspired Politician.

Thus do we now utter that ancient, guttural cry, as when Pilate offered a Substitute for the true Messiah, this:

‘Not Him [not this Man], but Barabbas! Give us Barabbas [instead]!’” – JOHN 18:39-40, AMPC

By our wretched Silence, or still worse, brazen Defiance of the Canon – We reap our Robb’s, and Sandy Hook’s, and Virginia Tech’s, and Marjorie Stoneman’s, and a thousand other horrors that shall surely multiply in the months and years ahead, for one reason.

It was boldly first declared by Russian dissident ALEXANDR ISAYAVICH SOLZHENITSYN at his acceptance of the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion on May 10, 1983:

“Over a half century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of old people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: ‘Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.’ Since then I have spent well-nigh 50 years working on the history of our Revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval. But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: ‘Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.’

We are watching this play out in Real Time in Uvaldi, and bloodier still at Mariupol, as an increasingly Godless America and Russia follow hard after Trump and Putin to slaughter by their dark betrayals of the only One who can stop it.  

THE APPLICATION. Now to the Biblical Instruction on all this, beloved, breathe life or death consequences to it rather than repeat the mindless American Church Narrative of “America First!”

1. THE TEACHING

SCRIPTURE. “So that we are no longer children [spiritually immature], tossed back and forth [like ships on a stormy sea] and carried about by every wind of [shifting] doctrine, by the cunning and trickery of [unscrupulous] men, by the deceitful scheming of people ready to do anything [for personal profit]. But speaking the truth in love [in all things—both our speech and our lives expressing His truth], let us ‘grow up in all things’ into Him [following His example] who is the Head—Christ.” – EPHESIANS 4:14-15, AMP

As with all these Commentaries, we move now to consider the KEY IDEAS from this powerful passage.

• NO LONGER CHILDREN. Here is clear expression of Paul’s disdain for the childish conduct of the saints in Ephesus, defined by the Greek term, ‘Népios’ [νήπιος]: “An infant, a simple-minded or immature person; unlearned, unenlightened; a child not yet able to speak plainly; a babe in ignorance and simplicity; a person weak in faith; a beginner; untaught, unskilled.” DK: This clearly warns against feeding Christians spiritual pablum that works to stunt their spiritual growth in wisdom, faith or courage. Consequently, they become incapable of recognizing or withstanding the attacks of the enemy, and are destroyed.

• TOSSED AND CARRIED ABOUT. From two words, ‘kludónizomai’ [κλυδωνίζομαι], “To fluctuate back and forth; to be agitated mentally [and therefore unstable].” AND: ‘Peripheró’ [περιφέρω], meaning “To carry about or around [or be carried about or around]; to be driven to and fro [in context, ‘by winds of shifting, false doctrines’]; to be [easily enticed] here and there; lit., ‘in doubt and hesitation to be led away now to some new opinion.’” DK: Clearly, we are describing so much of today’s doctrinally undernourished ‘Children’s Church,’ whose Pastors have for decades fed them sweetbreads instead of the rich red meat of Harry Blamire’s food development of the fully Christian Mind and subsequent fruitful conduct.

• BY SLEIGHT AND CUNNING. Again, we have two, closely related key terms: ‘Kubeia’ [κυβεία], “From the root word for ‘gaming cube;’ lit.,  playing with dice, gaming, hence, trickery, sleight of hand; cheating, fraud and deception.” AND: ‘Methodeia’ [μεθοδεία], “Pursuing a way of or search after something, an inquiry; a strategic method; scheming, craftiness, deceit;  properly, a predictable (pre-set) method used in organized evil-doing (well-crafted trickery); an artificial device or wile.” DK: All I could think of was ‘The Way of Satan’ here, the one who is craftier and more wicked (and highly intelligent), who lays traps for us every single day. Thus our critical need to be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves” at the same time (MATTHEW 10:16).

• SPEAKING TRUTH IN LOVE. The key term here is “Love,” and just what the Lord meant by it when He penned this passage. Truth Alert: Prepare to have your eyes opened. From the Greek term unique to the Canon, ‘Agapé [ἀγάπη]: “Love, benevolence, good will, esteem; plur., love-feasts; note, its benevolence, however, is not shown by doing what the person loved desires, but what the one who loves ‘deems as needed’ by the one loved (Selah); e.g. ‘For God so loved the world that He that He gave …’ What did He give? Not what man wanted but what man needed as God perceived his need [for a righteous life now and eternal life later].” DK: This is such a massive point of Doctrinal Correction for today’s Church, beloved. It means that the Love of God is not always easy, pleasant, fluffy and furry. It is at times, ‘severe,’ for the purpose of Rescue! 

• GROW UP! Now for the theological ‘pièces de résistance’ (lit., the chief dish of the meal). Here is God’s Shout to the American Church, found in the Greek word, ‘Auxano’ [αὐξάνω]: “To cause to increase, become greater (or stronger in spiritual maturity and wisdom); to become fully grown; to augment unto the knowledge of God and to the attaining of salvation; specifically directed toward ‘the growing authority of a teacher and the number of his adherents;’ i.e., to grow toward or arrive at full stature or physical, mental [or spiritual] maturity : ‘To progress from childhood toward adulthood.’” DK: Do I really need to say any more? Church, pastors, teachers, evangelists and all clerical authority – The Word of the Lord to you all; thanks be to God.

COMMENTARY. “It has been doubted whether the words ‘in love’ should not be connected with ‘may grow up,’ exactly as in Ephesians 4:16: ‘Maketh increase of the body … in love.” But both order and sense seem to point to the connection given in our version. The correct rendering is, ‘being true in love;’ including in this the ‘being true’ to others, by speaking truly and acting honestly towards them (as in Galatians 4:16), but including also the ‘being true’ absolutely—that is, the ‘loving the truth, and clinging to it at all costs.’ The latter element, indeed, is the one which stands here more properly in antithesis to the childish instability described in the preceding verse; as it is in itself the more important, and is, in fact, the only basis for the other.” – CHARLES ELLICOTT, ‘An Old and New Testament Commentary for English Readers,’ 1878, 1897; edited

THE PRINCIPLE. ‘Real Love begins in Truth,’ since the latter defines the former – and not the other way around! And now to the salient point Ellicott was making in two allusions to the passage in Galatians.

“Have I then become your enemy by telling the truth to you and dealing sincerely with you?” – GALATIANS 4:16, AMPC

THE COROLLARY. As we have all discovered by now, often painfully: ‘Telling the Truth’ will increasingly be met first with resistance, then with castigation, and finally, not very long from now, real threats to our very lives and livelihoods.

• LAST THOUGHTS

I have argued for several years now that the Church has defined the entire notion of ‘Truth in Love’ in cultural, and even Romanticized terms more than its root definition in God and the Canon. And that has contributed to the American Christian loving ourselves and our stuff far more than actually, zealously and consistently ‘loving God and loving others.’

AMERICAN IDOLATRY. From this monumental error flows the newest Replacement Theology on the American scene: “Patriotism” as it is defined in what for me is becoming truly hideous:  ‘The American Dream’:

“The American dream is the belief that anyone, regardless of where they were born or what class they were born into, can attain their own version of success in a society in which ‘upward mobility’ is possible for everyone. The American Dream is believed to be achieved through sacrifice, risk-taking, and hard work, rather than by chance.” – ADAM BARONE, “What Is The American Dream?” ‘Investopedia,’ March 28, 2022; edited

As if he read my mail, Barone then does us an enormous favor by specifying several KEY TAKEAWAYS from this distinctly American Paradigm for Success in life.

• The term “American dream” was coined in a best-selling book in 1931 titled Epic of America by JAMES TRUSLOW ADAMS.

• Adams described it as “that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.”

• The American dream was aided by a number of factors that gave the United States a competitive advantage over other countries.

• Homeownership and education are often seen as paths to achieving the American dream.

• Though the definition of the American Dream has changed to mean different things to different generations, it’s undoubtedly part of the American ethos, and likely always will be.

Anybody see any Jesus in there? Anyone? Anyone at all.

So let’s take a closer look at the Author of the American Dream, as he is profiled in ‘Wikipedia’s’ biography of Mr. Adams; last edited on May 3, 2022.

ADAMS’ “DREAM.” Adams coined the term “American Dream” in his 1931 book ‘The Epic of America.’ His American Dream is “that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult Dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a Dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a Dream of Social Order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position.”

However, Adams felt the American Dream was in peril during the 1920s and 30s. He complained that “money making and material improvements … mere extensions of the material basis of existence”, had gained ascendancy, becoming “goods in themselves … [mimicking] the aspects of moral virtues.” 

CODA. So there you have it, beloved. Even the traditional (though apparently not fully Christian) Mr. Adams, noted that following the revolutionary “Roaring 20s,” America had nearly fully lost her way. This in some agreement with my proposal that God “shall not strive further” with America, our having reached 120 Years, from 1900-2020. – cf. GENESIS 6:3

Jesus spoke to us alarmingly from this Noahic Principle. Let us listen here every so carefully, beloved.

“And just as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the time of [the second coming of] the Son of Man:the people were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, [they were indifferent to God] until the day that Noah went into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.It was the same as it was in the days of Lot. People were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building [carrying on business as usual, without regard for their sins];but on the [very] day that Lot left Sodom it rained fire and brimstone (burning sulfur) from heaven and destroyed them all. It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed.” – LUKE 17:26-30, AMP    

CLOSING POINT. The United States of America and her Church have congealed in a disastrous, Historic Alliance around a ‘now-polluted American Dream’ that is overwhelmingly defined by Material Gain and Political Power. More lethally, the Poster Boy for this New American Doctrine of “America (Me) First!”

Donald John Trump.

And all that he brings to the fore of contemporary American Life in this Age of Antichristian Departure from the Law, the Prophets and the New Testament Covenant of Jesus Christ.

Again, I declare to you: ‘We have forgotten God,’ as the Russian dissident phrased it so poignantly. And worse, beloved: We have replaced Him with an Antichrist, or perhaps ‘the’ Antichrist. Just like Jesus and the Apostles prophesied we would.

THE ANTIDOTE. One of our dear brothers in our fellowship recently brought to my attention JOHN WESLEY’S magnificent ‘Covenant Prayer,’ penned in 1780.

As the veritable ‘Father’ of the Circuit Ride Vision, I see this prayer as prophetically appropriate to our Conclusion, on the cusp of still another Circuit Ride to launch in a few days.

 “I am no longer my own, but Thine.

Put me to what Thou wilt, rank me with whom Thou wilt.

Put me to doing, put me to suffering.

Let me be employed by Thee or laid aside for Thee,

exalted for Thee or brought low for Thee.

Let me be full, let me be empty.

Let me have all things, let me have nothing.

I freely and heartily yield all things

to Thy pleasure and disposal.

And now, O glorious and blessed God,

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

Thou art mine, and I am Thine. So be it.

And the Covenant which I have made on Earth,

let it be ratified in Heaven. Amen.”

I can simply add nothing to this magnificent giving over of one’s total self, to the Master, beloved. ‘To carry His Sacred Fire’ and no other, to all who desire Him. For the lost and for the confounded, for the hungry and for the broken hearted, for the destitute and for all who are poor in spirit.

And yes – most especially for our American Leaders, our Civil Magistrates and most especially for our Pastors, Priests, Rabbis and Elders. Most especially for those.

And to God alone be the glory for it all.

Ever your servant, DK

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