howeenterprise.com
Faith by Debbie Wallis
Monday, July 6, 2015 But America was born in the atmosphere of God. In the early colonies the first public building erected was a church and the first public meeting was the worship of Almighty God. When hard times came they gathered at the church to pray to God for help. When bountiful harvests filled their barns they gathered at the church to thank God. These are our spiritual forefathers who came to the shores of America so they could worship and practice their faith without fear of persecution.
150 years passed by from the time of the earliest settlers to the beginning of our nation. We’re not very proud of some of the things “If My people, who are called by that happened during those years. My Name, will humbly pray and The original settlers died off, many turn back to Me and stop sinning, of their descendants were more then I will hear and forgive their concerned with increasing their sin and heal their land,” 2 wallets and having a comfortable Chronicles 7:14. living style instead of being faithful to God. Wave after wave of In this verse God lays down what immigrants arrived and many came He requires for a nation to with different motives than the experience His blessing, whether earliest settlers. that nation is Solomon’s or the England began a program of United States. Those who have emptying its prisons by making it been chosen to be His people must possible for prisoners to come to the cease from their sins, turn from New World as “indentured living lives of proud selfservants.” The King of England centeredness, pray to the Lord, and granted massive tracts of land in the yield their desires to His Word and New World to select people and His will. Then, and only then, will prisoners were sent to work these He grant heaven-sent revival. Our plantations. That was when slavery situation in this nation cannot be was introduced into the colonies. solved by human means; we need Divine intervention to bring this The spiritual atmosphere country back to being a Goddeteriorated rapidly. Churches were fearing, Christian nation. dying and many that had once Churches do not agree on what sin sought religious freedom were now is. People seeking God are hearing being intolerant of others. It was mixed messages. during this time that some went off America’s earliest settlers were people who came here primarily looking for religious freedom. Other nations, for the most part, came into existence by conquest for selfish & ambitious motives.
in strange spiritual directions. Voodoo for one and it started the horrible witch hunt era. By 1730 only about 10% of the people in the Colonies attended church at all. Beginning in 1734, a handful of
preachers began to preach in the churches, the streets and in the fields. These soon turned into great crusades and revivals that spread throughout the 13 Colonies. So many people came to Christ that that era came to be known as “The Great Awakening.” Tens of thousands dedicated their lives to Jesus Christ. Christians were no longer just 10% of the population; they made up more than 50%. The “Great Awakening” was a forerunner to the American Revolution. Our Founding Fathers, the signers of the Declaration of Independence, those who wrote our Constitution and the Bill of Rights, those who put their lives on the line, who fought and died that we might be free – grew up and came into leadership while the “Great Awakening” was engulfing the land. The generation that experienced the “Great Awakening” became the leaders of the American Revolution. 94% of the quotes of the founders of our nation were based upon the Bible.
by Steve Casey
Page #8
Independent Day I thought of Paul in Romans when he said that as much as he desired to be good, far too often he falls short of the mark: and wondered what went wrong.
As a church, our ability to proclaim the Gospel is hampered by internal squabbles. We debate over doctrine and that affects us pointing hurting people to the one and only true freedom in Jesus Christ. We may intend good yet we, as the body of Christ have failed miserable representing Jesus to a fallen world. We are a body divided against its own body. How can a body be healthy and work to its potential when the hand doesn’t agree with the eye, or the foot disagrees with the head? Over and over our efforts to ensure the freedom of one people seem to lead to the oppression of another. Church, we need each other. A hand cannot survive without connected to the body. Feet cannot walk separated from the legs. This nation is under attack by evil rulers and decision makers. We need to be united as one body and diligently seek God’s face. We need a return of the “Great Awakening”. Why not in Small Town, USA? The freedom we enjoy was Why not Howe, TX? “Let us show bought by those who went before you Howe”. us: our founding fathers and mothers who had the courage and “If My people, who are called by My vision to imagine a nation Name, will humbly pray and turn “conceived in liberty and back to Me and stop sinning, then I dedicated to the proposition that will hear and forgive their sin and all men are created equal.” They heal their land,” 2 Chronicles 7:14. sacrificed in blood sweat and tears and generations following If you do not have a Bible please have made sacrifices ever since: contact me at sfadebbie@yahoo.com claiming and reclaiming that and I will provide you one. vision of a nation with liberty and justice for all. Our spiritual freedom, our salvation, was bought for us by the generations who have gone before and Jesus paid the once and for all sacrifice on the cross. As we celebrated freedom on
