This is a Sunday sermon, or rather teaching, (actually my part starts 8 minutes into this video) about how the American commoners who in 1776 declared their independence from the highly authoritarian English King George III were able to achieve a totally unprecedented success – against all odds (all other historical examples ending up with the rebels all being hung or shot) – because they understood that they were doing God's work in their fight to preserve the American social experiment as a "City on a Hill," a "Light to the Nations." They full well knew that they were a society established by God himself to show the rest of the world how God wanted deeply all of his people to be able to govern themselves fully, inspired to undertake greater things simply by their full faith in God ... and directed wisely by his (Biblical) instructions. In short – the American effort to preserve its independence succeeded only because God was with them.
A sermon/history lesson delivered on December 27, 2020 at the New Awakening Church in Schuylkill Haven. I teach when I preach, and I preach when I teach. This is a bit of both ... about how God has "awakened" America in the past rather repeatedly – when it drifts off into self-rationalizing projects, projects which bring confusion and breakdown in the American social fabric. And he sparks these awakenings through just ordinary people ... people like us, people willing to let God (and not human rationalizations) lead them. And ... it seems that we Americans find ourselves in exactly the same condition today – needing God to deliver us from our social folly with another Awakening. We need a "New Awakening"!
A discussion (November 25, 2020) between my son-in-law, Pastor Rimi Xhemajli, and me concerning the Pilgrims who held that famous Thanksgiving feast honoring God ... in the face of all the personal suffering and loss they had recently experienced in getting their Plymouth Plantation up and running. Many are the lessons we could draw today from the way they understood the dynamic that shaped them as a people.
Another discussion (August 13, 2020) on a wide range of issues, but most importantly concerning what it was that motivated and directed the writing of my three-volume history of America's covenant with God.
Here's my first blog ... with my son John. It's just a general look at America ... and where it is headed. It comes at the subject from two different generational perspectives, (more than 50 years separating us!).