- That a ceasefire will be brokered among the parties.
- That any ceasefire will not simply delay Israel being able to effectively neutralize the threat posed to their security.
- About the intentions of the Muslim Brotherhood and their representatives in Egypt and Turkey, and whether an honest deal can be struck.
- About the influence of Iran in the supply of arms to Hamas through Egypt.
NOTE: (1) If you've looked to the right of this blog page, you've notice large gaps of empty space after the first several entries. I don't know why, but for some reason since recently, I cannot remove those gaps NOR type any new text but one letter at a time. Please PRAY that this might be reseolved soon. In the meantime, please scroll down to almost the very end of that column to find instructions on 1) how to post your comments, 2) how to contact your Congressional representatives, and 3) websites AND THEN books I highly recommend. (You can email me at: yonashiro@bellsouthl.net)
(2) The following is the first of two posts recognizing Thanksgiving. I hope that you will take a moment tomorow to check out the second post speaking to this most special American holiday.
[The following is a speech delivered by Dr. D. James Kennedy at the Rededication of the National Monument to the Forefathers in Plymouth, Massachusetts, on August 6, 1989, for the Centennial Celebration (1889-1989), sponsored by the Pilgrim Society, Plymouth, Massachusetts.]
“In the Name of God, Amen.” Thus began the Compact signed in the captain’s quarters on the Mayflower as it stood at anchor off Provincetown Bay. “In the Name of God. Amen.” Thus began the dedicatory address by William Breckinridge for the monument to the Pilgrims at Plymouth, Massachusetts, 100 years ago.
“In the Name of God” is where America began, and though they have long been dead, the Pilgrims may still speak to us through this monument, that we might learn something of those grand ideals, those spiritual truths, that so gripped their lives and so changed the world.
At Plymouth, the pre-eminent statue is the great figure of Faith. It was faith that animated the Pilgrims. It was their faith in the living God that caused them to give up their homes, to give up their native land. It was their faith that gave them the courage to set sail in the Mayflower. It was their faith that strengthened them.
They have been called the “People of the Book” —the Scriptures. They had discovered the Scriptures and had read them for themselves. They had learned of the precious Savior, who offered them freely the gift of eternal life, if they would but trust in Him … and trust they did. Their hearts were lifted upward, and they placed their hopes in that One who loved them and died for them and rose again.
Therefore, this statue at Plymouth has its finger lifted to Heaven. Someone has said that faith is simply pointing away from ourselves unto the Living God—unto Jesus Christ. For a Christian, that is what his faith is. That was their faith.
Around the base of the great statue at Plymouth are four other statues that embody some of the virtues most meaningful to the Pilgrims: liberty, morality, law, and education. I am going to begin where most people usually end, with [1] a statue to Liberty. We see a man dressed in Roman armor, and in his arms a sword faced backward, so that it is not threatening, with a conquered lion over his back. Here is depicted what the Pilgrims sought: liberty of conscience, religious liberty, and civil liberty.
The second [2] statue is the statue to Morality, holding the Ten Commandments in one hand and the scroll of the book of Revelation in the other. This showed that the Pilgrims believed that morality came from the Scriptures, from the Old Testament and the New Testament—that ethics derived from religion.
This brings us to the third [3] statue in the memorial at Plymouth—the great statue of Law. The Pilgrims believed that law was based upon morality; so we have the three-tiered cake of religion, morality, and law. One is based upon the other; it cannot be any other way.
The last statue at the back of this great Plymouth monument is the statue to Education. For 210 years, from 1620 to 1830, virtually all of the education in this country was private and religious—Christian in nature, with very few exceptions.
The Puritan Governor Bradford said of the Pilgrims: “… a great hope and inward zeal they had of laying some good foundation, or at least make some way thereunto, for the propagating and advancing the gospel of the kingdom of Christ in those remote parts of the world; yea, though they should be but even as steppingstones unto others for the performing of so great a work.”
May we, the inheritors of their great legacy, rededicate ourselves to those spiritual and godly ideals so that this country might, indeed, be a nation set on a hill for all the world to see, to admire, and to emulate.
[bold and italics emphsis mine]
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