Gaining Ground

With U.S. Secretary of State Kerry rushing back and forth between Israel and the Palestinians, we sometimes lose sight of the obvious.

 

Even if it were not a complete Biblical abomination for the U.S. to be pushing the sovereign nation of Israel into giving up segments of their God-ordained homeland…it  makes absolutely no sense in the “common sense” realm either. 

 

The Land Mass of Israel only comprises ONE PERCENT of the Middle East!  Israel is surrounded on ALL sides by hostile Arab neighbors.  The Jewish people have faced horrific persecution in other countries where they have historically attempted to peaceably reside.  WHY do they have to give up anything in order to maintain their right to exist in their own small nation, a nation no bigger than the State of New Jersey?  The extremists stated goals won’t even affirm their “right to exist.”  The whole process is patently absurd.    

 

I think this is fertile ground (pardon the pun) for a metaphor of our Christian lives also.  How much territory does God occupy in your life?  Is He apparent in all aspects of your daily walk?  Does He enter into your marital relationship, your friendships, your work-place?  Does He factor into your entertainment, your political votes, your social positions?  Do you compromise your values and beliefs for a false sense of peace with family, co-workers and neighbors?

 

Interestingly, there is not a “static” position in science…everything is constantly in motion even if we can’t always see it with the natural eye:

 

In science there are two related concepts in our ever-changing galaxies:

 

1)      Black Holes:  A black hole is a region of space from which gravity prevents anything, including light, from escaping.  It is a former star eventually imploding and creating bleak darkness.

2)      Star Formation:  Brilliant and powerful stars (of which our sun is a nearby example) are created by the collision of two galaxies.  Under such duress they become potent sources of energy and great light. 

 

Both of these galactic wonders are created by pull or pressure of gravity--One towards indescribable blackness and the other to inexpressible light.

 

Let me suggest that if you are not moving forward with God, don’t delude yourself and think you are holding your ground.  Like black holes and stars, you are either imploding or exploding even if, at the moment, you can’t “see” it happening.  In the spiritual world, you are either giving the Devil a foothold or you are putting a foot on his backside. 

 

So, stop compromising in the hopes of a false peace.  Like Israel…

 

It’s time to RETAKE THE LAND that God Promised us.

 

~Reprinted with permission by Pastor Jeff Daly

Comments/Feedback: jdalylaw@aol.com

 

The Diet of Champions

Nobody likes me

Everybody hates me
I’m gonna eat some worms.
~Childhood song (unknown origin)

After Martin Luther disseminated his 95 theses to reform the Catholic Church, he was called to appear before the Diet of Worms council.  A “diet” was a formal conference of princes from the Holy Roman Empire.  “Worms” was the name of the German town where the convocation was held.  Thus “The Diet of Worms” council was peculiarly named.  

The Church at that time was in dire need of Reformation.  It had dissolved into a corrupt institution that poorly served the people and wielded its religious and political power to oppress the citizenry.  It exercised its control through superstitions and threats of eternal damnation if its hapless followers did not ante up by purchasing “indulgences.”  In essence, the Church had become spiritually dead. 

The term “worms” in the Bible is the word equivalent of maggots…insects that feed on the rotting flesh of the dead.  So, metaphorically speaking, this “Diet of Worms” council wanted to continue feeding on the rotting corpse of their spiritually dead practices.  Like worms or maggots, they were threatened by Luther’s challenge to take away their food source.

I wonder if the council ever noticed the irony in their bizarre name.  I doubt it.   Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction.  

To call someone a worm in Biblical times would be the equivalent of labeling someone as the lowest of low.  Yet in Psalms, we see a fore-mention of Yeshua/Christ in this verse: 

But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.

~Psalms 22:6

Yeshua/Christ…while equal with God…did not exalt Himself.  

During the height of the Roman Empire, war victors were honored by a great triumphal chariot parade through town.  At the same time, a slave would ride in their chariots and whisper continually in their ear that they were not gods, but mortal human beings, destined to ultimately lie with maggots and worms.

Just a matter of days after entering Jerusalem on a donkey, with throngs hailing Him as King and Messiah amidst Hosanna shouts of praise, Yeshua/Jesus was brutally crucified.  The juxtaposition of these two events in such close proximity cannot be misinterpreted.  Yeshua/Jesus was well aware of the fickleness of popularity and the unpredictability of men’s opinions.  This was also foretold of in the Old Testament: 

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey

~Zechariah 9:9

We know the end of the Jerusalem story.  Yeshua/Jesus overcame Death.  His Body was never consumed in the grave but Resurrected so that we might all have Eternal Life. 

Today our churches are in danger of becoming spiritually dead once again.  This time our enemy is the evil social forces that would seek to feed on the decaying flesh of our once great Judeo-Christian societies.  Nations need to seek another Reformation through National Repentance.  Instead of a “diet of worms”, maybe we ought to consider this menu item…

Humble pie.

It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the Offended power, to confess our national sins, and pray for clemency and forgiveness.

~Abraham Lincoln

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

~2 Chronicles 7:14

~Posted by Permission of Pastor Jeff Daly

THE ZIMMERMAN TRIAL AND AUTHENTIC RECONCILIATION--Part 1

            The United States has made more progress in authentic racial reconciliation than any other nation.  Has there ever been a black head of state in Europe?  How about prominent business, political leaders, or church officials?  How many whites are in power in South Africa?  How many Asians in Russia, or Okinawans in Japan?  That said, the demonstrations and riots following the Zimmerman trial are articulate evidence of the ongoing chasm between the races in America.  We can say what we like about professional race baiters and exploiters such as Al Sharpton, but they require raw material to work with – and such there remains.  So how do we advance authentic reconciliation today?

 

            In my book, Living As Ambassadors of Relationships, I describe a three-point process for seeking reconciliation.  Provided both sides are acting in good faith it goes like this.  Let both sides present their view of the issue with all their passion.  This does not include permission for name-calling or putdowns, but stepping lightly around what we believe leads only to a watered down settlement that compromises truth.  The Son Who came to bring reconciliation with His Father rebukes the negotiated settlement and calls on all mankind to find truth in submission to Him as the embodiment of Truth.

 

            Let both parties listen to and respect the other guy’s view of events as they demand respect for their own.  Jesus listened patiently to Pharisees, tax collectors and Roman invaders before weighing in on controversy Himself – whether taxes, forgiveness of sins, or who gets to live with Him forever and in what capacity. 

 

The last and most crucial part of the process is to let our Creator and Resurrector God re-frame the discussion so Truth itself is revealed and accepted – not just one or another view of it.

 

            That means people like me need to listen with respect when people like “they” claim blacks cannot (and will never) get a fair shake in a majority white society and the Trayvon Martin affair is just one more proof.  We need to reflect on the feelings engendered by the multitudes of blacks hunted down like animals for wanting to escape to freedom before 1865 and the American courts – including the Supreme Court – who had no problem defining them as sub-human.  We can add in the multitudes lynched under Jim Crow while Americans from the grass roots to the White House in both parties said, “They want too much too fast.”  Tempted to cry out against what we see as irrational attachment to feelings over facts in the Zimmerman case, we can include incidents like the Rodney King beating and recognize rampant racism wasn’t that long ago and time does not heal all wounds – or even any.

 

            But it first means we address the facts – the truth I understand – of this case.  The facts are that George Zimmerman followed a young man he believed intent on committing a crime.  As a neighborhood watch volunteer – or concerned citizen – he was doing a good thing, not a criminal thing.  Zimmerman’s history includes a public complaint against Sanford police for covering up the death of a young black man by the son of a white policeman; there is no racism in him.  He was armed, as his concealed-carry permit authorizes him to be.  When he was attacked by someone much bigger than he; assaulted, bloodied, and told he would die this night, he defended his life.  None of this is criminal; it is simply the exercise of the right of every American to walk unmolested and to defend himself when attacked.  Whether Zimmerman acted wisely; whether he disregarded instructions from the police dispatcher, is irrelevant because it is not criminal.  In this case – and we can consider only this case at this time – only Trayvon Martin committed criminal acts – and he paid a terrible price for his behavior.

 

            The third and most important piece in the authentic reconciliation process – again – is to let One who dies for all re-frame the conversation into what He understands as truth.  He understands truth better than any of us because He is Truth.

 

How would Jesus re-frame the discussion of the Zimmerman trial?  Let’s remember He said not one jot or tittle of the moral law was abrogated by His death and resurrection.  That includes the part about not bearing false witness against your neighbor.  He also said we are to love our neighbors as ourselves.  That includes times when loving is hard.  It never allows for a Neener-neener response to the other guy’s pain, even if we think it deserved.  I will explore this in Part 2 of this post.

 

James A. Wilson is the author of Living As Ambassadors of Relationships and The Holy Spirit and the End Times – available at local bookstores or by e-mailing him at

praynorthstate@charter.net

AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM AND THE GNADDENHUTTEN MASSACRE

One of my favorite books as a teenager was Zane Grey’s The Spirit of the Border.  I was thrilled by this tale of quiet courage in Moravian Christian missionaries to the Native Americans of the Ohio River Valley set against the earthquake valor of the famous Indian fighter, Lewis Wetzel, at the close of the American Revolution.  Nearly all the characters are historical realities excepting the twin brothers, Jim and Joe Downs, the sisters they love, and some of the Indian leaders.  A key element is the destruction of the missionaries’ Village of Peace – they called it Gnaddenhutten – by Indian warriors incited by American renegades while an equally real band of American militia looks on because they are not large enough to interfere without bringing certain destruction on themselves.

 

As an adult with leadership responsibilities in the Christian community – the American Christian community – I recently re-discovered this book and did a little research into its historicity.  I discovered the truth that the Christian Indians were massacred by that very body of American militia led by David Williamson whom Grey depicts as helpless to intervene.  The band – actually twice the size reported by Grey – gave the Indians a night to pray and prepare themselves for death before bludgeoning and scalping them into eternity.  The missionary leaders, David Zeisberger and John Heckewelder, were not present.  They were later captured by the British and tried and acquitted of treason against Great Britain.

 

The historical incident should be as shameful to our people as it was thrilling to the heart of the fourteen-year-old boy reading the fictionalized account.  It becomes more horrific by the very attempt to sanitize it.  Yet in either version it seems to spotlight the struggle for us Americans – since the beginning – between the God-breathed opportunity to build a shining city on a hill and the human demand to build a city in the image of our warrior and entrepreneurial tradition.  Reality is both sides of the American character are exceptional and have been used by God to temper and activate each other.  Reality is that the city on a hill metaphor – whether spoken by Isaiah or Ronald Reagan – reflects our God-given nature and needs to be in command when we strike out into the wilderness on the shoulders of the other side, the Wetzel side.

 

  Our God is a God of quiet courage in the middle of sacrifice, forgiveness, and mercy.  He revealed His plan for every social and political institution we hold dear in words uttered in His Name from New England pulpits that gave rise to our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution.  He shaped our character and identity as a nation in the first three Great Awakenings.  He also gave us the spirit of aggressive courage that invents the plow that breaks the Great Plains and feeds the world – but also breaks people and fights tooth and nail to preserve an institution as foul as slavery until other people – fueled by that same spirit of courageous aggression – put an end to it.  Both spirits are of God, but the latter must be the servant of the former if we would be the people we have always been called to be, just as we Christians say the flesh must become the servant of soul and spirit.  And we need to remember that God’s unimaginable power is released only in submission to His known will, however counter-intuitive it may seem.  At that point we become people of redemption, restoration, and resurrection.  We become the only nation in history to re-build nations like Germany and Japan after having defeated them in war.  We become uniquely transparent in acknowledging the areas in which we fall short – such as our treatment of Black and Native peoples – and in seeking to fully right those wrongs.  And we become the first to come to the rescue of even those nations that despise us when they are in distress.

 

The American track record in caring and generosity – not to mention mercy and forgiveness – is unmatched among the nations.  We are not perfect.  But we do not need to paper over events like the Gnaddenhutten Massacre.  We need to address them in repentance and humility.  And we need to remember the words of the only King we will ever need.  “Remain in me and I will remain in you.  No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine.  Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.”  This is not a call to the nation first; it is first a call to the people of faith on whom the nation rests.

 

James A. Wilson is the author of Living As Ambassadors of Relationships and The Holy Spirit and the End Times – available at local bookstores or by e-mailing him at

praynorthstate@charter.net

 

              

THE GOVERNOR’S PRAYER TEAM AND THE DAMASCUS ROAD

 

The Paul who wrote more of the New Testament than anybody else began his ministry – the one he received from God – in an encounter with the Living God on the road from Jerusalem to Damascus. On a mission to arrest followers of Jesus he is struck to the ground by a vision of the Risen Jesus who asks why he is persecuting the Son of God. Jesus then remarks that it hurts Paul to kick against the goads – the revelations of Christ that are transforming the world and directing travelers like himself to their destination in Christ. Paul – known as Saul prior to the Damascus Road – is transformed and re-booted as a man created in the image of God and he never looks back over the rest of his earthly life. In the California Governor’s Prayer Team we always begin our times of worshipping God and praying for His blessings on California with a plea to provide every leader in the state with a Damascus Road experience – beginning with ourselves as we pray.

The Governor’s Prayer Team is an interdenominational ministry with chapters in every state. Its founder and national director is a pastor named Tom Walker who is based in Indianapolis, Indiana; I am the state coordinator for California. Although the state governor is aware of us – and we do pray for him – the governor referenced in the name is the Governor of the world referenced in Psalms 8 and in other scriptures as well.

Our goal is to have coordinators in each of California’s fifty-eight counties; we are presently represented in twenty-seven. Coordinators receive an e-mail from me at least once monthly – often more frequently – in which I share whatever I know about what is going on in our state that could use concerted prayer. We host weekly conference calls and we take a team into the state capitol once each month to pray inside the building – with the blessing of hosting legislators. (Actually, PrayNorthState has been doing this since 2005; I became the CGPT coordinator in 2012.) We teach our people to pray only for blessing and transformation in our state; we exercise Our Lord’s mandate to forgive if we would be forgiven, and we worship and celebrate His Supper at every bend of the road. County coordinators are required only to meet regularly with their own team of praying people and to fold the points in my e-mail in with whatever else they are praying. Each has a history of his or her county provided by Reformation Prayer Network to guide the long term intercession over the county in terms of what God is up to locally. We are, of course, on the look-out for seasoned and trustworthy people to become coordinators in unrepresented counties.

What do we pray for?

We pray God to shape each of our leaders – beginning with ourselves – into the people He intended when He knew us in the womb; that is the meaning of the Damascus Road for us. We pray for the culture and season of repentance that has preceded each of the previous three Great Awakenings of the Body of Christ in America. We include prayer for wise stewardship of our state’s resources and a commitment to justice for all – not just those we deem excluded from it – as legislators allocate those resources in the state budget. We pray that God would cause leaders to fall in love with the limitations placed on their power in our state and federal constitutions. We ask God to shine the light of day on the many scandals plaguing our state and nation. We acknowledge that the condition of society is nothing less than a report card on the state of the Church. When the one is healthy so is the other – and the Church is called to lead in the process.

We do pray over specific pieces of policy and legislation, especially when it concerns the most basic rights to life, freedom of conscience and expression, and the unrestricted pursuit of prosperity for the benefit of our families and communities. These are rights given by God and guaranteed in those constitutions we love. But we do not curse anyone or anything; we simply ask God to transform hearts in whatever terms seem good to Him.

God never asked His people to transform the Roman Empire. He commanded us to become so transformed ourselves that we effectively infiltrate the empires in which we live with the life, the love, and the peace of God. We get it that when we Christians are living God’s life others are attracted. This works fine for us.

 

   

James A. Wilson is the author of Living As Ambassadors of Relationships and The Holy Spirit and the End Times – available at local bookstores or by e-mailing him at

praynorthstate@charter.net

We're Not In Kansas Anymore

"I feel the greatest destroyer of peace today is "Abortion", because it is a war against the child... A direct killing of the innocent child, "Murder" by the mother herself... And if we can accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?”~Mother Teresa

In the classic movie, The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy and Toto suddenly find themselves in a bizarre new land strangely altered by the powerful effects of a swift Kansas tornado.  At first, the glamour, glitz and brilliant colors of Oz seem somewhat attractive and seductive.  Surely this is an improvement over the boring, mundane existence of the “black and white” American farm life!  Yet soon it becomes obvious that this yellow brick road of “hope and change” has sinister undertones that lead to evil witches and flying imps. 

Kathleen Sebelius, now serving as Obama’s Secretary of Health and Human Services, originally hails from Kansas.  As Governor, she was described as “the most pro-abortion Governor in the country.”  In 2008, Sebelius vetoed the Comprehensive Abortion Reform Act which, along with other common sense reforms, would have limited late term abortions.  The Catholic Church has sought to disassociate themselves from Sebelius by denying her communion due to her radical pro-abortion views.  Of course, she was well-suited as Obama’s top pick when he began putting together his Cabinet of Czars.  She has spear-headed the Obama”care” HHS mandate which violates religious freedoms and forces employers to participate in the continued wholesale slaughter of innocents. 

Interestingly, the actual geographical center of the continental United States has been identified as Smith County, Kansas.  In fact, one might call it the "dead" center.  So literally, Kansas is ground zero for America’s “heartland.” If Kathleen Sebelius personifies the U.S. heartland, then our heart is sick, possibly in the throes of cardiac arrest. Tragedies such as the horrors in the Gosnell trial are the electrical shocks of self-revelation that will hopefully quicken us before we are declared legally conscience dead. 

In the Texas State Capitol rotunda, the abortion drama was played out in real time on the Internet.  Amid the chants of “Hail Satan” and the flinging of bricks, urine, feces and tampons, Americans are getting an up close and ugly look at this strange new land we’ve entered.  However, a new fervor for Pro-Life positions is spreading like wildfire since the horrific Gosnell revelations.  Let’s fast forward from former Governor Sebelius to the current leadership of Governor Sam Brownback in Kansas.  He recently signed into law one of the most sweeping anti-abortion measures in the country which, amongst many other provisions, declares that life begins “at fertilization.” 

Like the Emerald City, Obama’s false society, where everyone does what is right in their own eyes, has been revealed as nothing more than smoke and mirrors.  Reminiscent of the Scarecrow, the Tin man and the Lion, maybe the things that we desperately seek, we already possessed in our previous, more simple American Judeo-Christian culture--The time before abortion, marriage redefinition and false wizards dangling promises of counterfeit virtues.    

Somewhere, over the LGBT rainbow…where clouds are far behind us and babies are allowed to be born…I hope that’s where we’ll soon find America again.    

I’m clicking my heels together and begging God to let us return once more.  Let’s pray America has the brains, the backbone and the courage to continue down this Renaissance path of Repentance which will lead us full circle. 

When it comes to locating a “city on a hill”, a land of liberty, freedom and independence…

There’s no place like home.

Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop and I don't mind…. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the Promised Land.

~Martin Luther King, Jr.

I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointedst the pillar, where thou vowedst a vow unto me: now arise, get thee out from this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred.

~Genesis 31:13

~Posted by permission of Pastor Jeff Daly

Prayer of Repentance:  (submitted by Dr. Glenda Lattimore/Australia)

Lord please keep our hearts pure before You as we read of these sins. Fill our hearts with mercy for "they know not what they do", & we recognise and acknowledge that You laid down Your precious life for ones such as these because You love them so. We know too that we are all equally in sin without Your saving grace and it is not our place to judge these souls. But we join with You Lord in grieving over these sins, & we minister to You in Your grief as our Elohim God, Creator and Giver of all life. 

Dear Heavenly Father, please outpour Your mercy, grace and wisdom for those who already know and love You in Spirit and in Truth, and lead us in Your way in dismantling the labyrinths of Satan in our laws and culture. Thank you. In You alone we trust and hope. We repent for the sins of these lawless ones Lord, and ask that You bind every demonic power & cleanse and redeem us all with the blood of Jesus.

Please turn the hearts of every American and Australian back to You, Lord, by the power of Your Holy Spirit. Thank You that Your mercy and lovingkindness endure forever & there is nothing too hard or too wonderful for You. By Your stripes we are healed, & by Your blood captives are set free. Lord Jesus, may the spiritually blind see, the spiritually deaf hear, the spiritually lame walk, & the spiritually dead be resurrected into New Life. And may the saints rise up on eagle's wings for Your glory and honour.

Thank You Jesus!

In Your Holy Name we pray. Amen.

THE REPORT CARD OF THE CHURCH

            When California’s governor and legislature attempted to gut open meeting and freedom of information laws there was an immediate uprising on left and right.  The government backed down.  One can only wonder what would happen if left and right were equally horrified by the lawlessness of the state’s secular authorities and the Ninth Circuit Court in pushing forward gay marriages when they have neither the authority nor the jurisdiction to do so.  As things stand the issue is no longer homosexual marriage, but rather elected and unelected officials acting contrary to law because they can.  That should send chills of both fear and outrage up the spines of freedom loving people regardless of their opinions on gay marriage.  What government can do to gore the ox of one faction it can do to the ox of another on another day.

 

            That fear and outrage is not manifesting at this moment.  It is left for people of faith and common sense to stand or fall because – as Jackson Senyonga famously said in California – The condition of society is the report card of the Church.  The implication of the biblical story of the paralyzed man healed after his friends lower him through the roof to lie at Jesus’ feet stands.  Until he stands and walks – testing the new muscles he has received – he is not really and fully healed.

 

My last post mentioned how prophets of Bible times confronted kings with their wrongdoing from David to Ahab and Herod.  Daniel confronted the emperor of Babylon.  They risked their lives each time they confronted rulers; yet they were convinced that life was not worth living outside of service to the God who had given them real freedom and real life.  In fact, as three of Daniel’s friends prepared to be thrown into a super-heated furnace they declared that – although they expected God’s rescue – they would not change their decision to serve Him in truth even if he did not deliver them from evil.  When the disciples are hopelessly confused by Jesus’ hard statements and some begin to walk away the Lord asks Peter if he too will go.  Peter asks, “Where would I go?  You have the words of life.”  What have such stories to do with ordinary Christians in California in the face of governors and attorneys general who refuse their duty to defend state law – and defy the courts when they don’t get what they want?

 

We can excuse ourselves all day long by saying we are not Elijah and we are not John the Baptist.  Or we can repent – re-focus on God as our life source and life model – and reflect that since the first Pentecost we of the Body are a prophetic community.  We need not make the Nathans in our midst the surrogates for what we ought to do – and are enabled to do.  The good news of the Supreme Court decisions and the lawless response to them is that we can finally know – I hope – that putting our trust in men and institutions to do the right thing is a fool’s bargain.  Trusting in and following God wherever He leads is the only game in tow.  But what ought we do?

 

We ought as the Body of Christ to enter into a serious season of repentance – re-focus on God – with practical consequences as direct and visible as that man walking in a village in Judea two thousand years ago. That means we respond to Jesus’ statement in Matthew 10 that He will acknowledge us before His Father only if we acknowledge Him before men.  It means we call, e-mail and speak – throughout the state – demanding that government officials obey the law and perform only their lawful duties while we obey only their lawful orders.  This is an act of supreme repentance for those of us who have remained silent and imagined our faith a private matter.

 

Even more we ought to pray as never before for government leaders, for leadership in our churches, and for those with whom we disagree on the values and shaping of marriage.  We pray a Damascus Road experience for all leaders – beginning with ourselves – in which we like Paul are confronted with the overwhelming love of God on Whom we have turned our backs even while imagining we served Him.  We ought to pray every day that leaders would fall in love with the limitations placed on their power in the Constitution and in the Word of God which inspired it. I can guarantee our grades will rise on our next report card – for all concerned – if we do as we ought. 

  

James A. Wilson is the author of Living As Ambassadors of Relationships and The Holy Spirit and the End Times – available at local bookstores or by e-mailing him at

praynorthstate@charter.net