We are witnessing a tectonic shift in our nation back to God-given morality. At the prayer breakfast that President Trump attended this date on Capitol Hill, he spoke of the Christian roots of our nation and of the faith of George Washington, our nation’s founder. And he continued to speak at length about how our belief in God and reliance upon God had made us the shining city upon a hill for all the world to see. God has used our nation greatly as a witness to the world. He summed it all up with our national motto “In God We Trust”.
He spoke about his own faith in God and how his father used to take him to hear Billy Graham at Yankee Stadium. He said in fact he remembered Billy Graham preaching to 60,000 people more than he remembered the Yankee games.
He looked out over all those gathered and said, “I shouldn’t be here.” He gave God credit for saving his life from the assassin’s bullet at Butler, Pennsylvania. And he gave us more detail about it than he had in the past. He said if he hadn’t turned his head at that precise moment to look at his immigration chart that he used at his rallies, he would not be there with them at the breakfast. And he said he thought about it and he only used that chart 20% of the time at his rallies and fortunately they used it that day. And he said they usually placed the chart on his left, but it just happened to be on his right that day.
He said that his son is an expert marksman and he told him that with that type of gun that the assassin used at that range, making that shot successfully was like sinking a 1 (one) foot put in golf (it’s pretty much a sure thing).
Isn’t it great to have a president who wants to make this nation a great spiritual witness to the world again? First and foremost in his heart, he felt that God had saved his life for a reason and he said he would always stand up for religious liberty.
From the perspective of the pro-life community we are hearing from all quarters that Donald Trump is the most pro-life president in recent memory.
During the revolutionary War, the story is told of George Washington on his horse in the thick of battle with the bullets flying all around him while many others were dropping dead. A person that was there and witnessed the battle said it was very curious that none of the bullets struck General Washington. God’s hand was with our nation’s founder and God’s hand is with our nation’s current president.
God has a way of bringing forth great witnesses for Him to be used for His purposes from individuals of whom we never would have guessed it possible. Trump was maligned for allegedly being a philanderer and for having been an adulterer with Stormy Daniels. Whether the allegations were true or not, we can think of one man who admitted his guilt of adultery crying out to God for His forgiveness. He wrote most of the Psalms. His name was King David. His Stormy Daniels was named Bathsheba. And she bore him a son (King Solomon).
So let’s no longer weigh the character of this man, known to God as “Donald John Trump” (God doesn’t have a president), in the balance scales of the past any more than we would weigh the character of King David in the balance scales of his past when he placed Bathsheba’s husband purposefully in the front lines knowing that he would be killed.
Let us all get out a new set of balance scales and weigh this man Trump in the present and decide for ourselves whether or not God’s hand is providentially upon him. And let’s be thankful that the pro-life community has a pro-life stalwart in the White House.
In his second State of the Union speech during his first term, he looked out over all assembled and spoke of “unborn children created in the Holy Image of God” calling for legislation to outlaw late term abortion. After referring to unborn (preborn) children as having been created in the Holy Image of God, he looked back over his right shoulder at Vice President Pence (seated on the elevated dais – as if to say, “How was that?”). Look up President Trump’s 2nd State of the Union speech during his first administration on Youtube – it is beautiful to watch. It always seemed to me that Vice President Pence was providentially given to Trump as a spiritual mentor. As you may recall, the Republican side of the chamber rose at this point and gave him a standing ovation for his words. The Democratic side sat on their hands and the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, ripped her copy of the speech in half from top to bottom as he had his back to her preparing to leave the speaker’s rostrum at the conclusion of his address.
One thing President Trump spoke of this morning, and he did so from his heart, was the need for Democrats and Republicans to come together for the good of the nation. He said when he was a boy growing up his father was friends with a congressman and that congressman would often go to lunch or dinner with a fellow congressman of the opposite party. He told them at the prayer breakfast that we need to see that again. He complimented them on coming together on the Laken Riley bill and that he would like to see more of that cooperative work.
America is back! America is again respected around the world!
This man speaks with authority (fortunately he is the man of faith that he is) and Butler, Pennsylvania, was his epiphany. He saw the light just as Saul on the road to Damascus had an epiphany shortly after being struck blind and seeing only darkness. He heard only a voice “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” (Acts 94). It wasn’t until later at the house of Judas in Damascus that the disciple Ananias came and the scales fell from his eyes.
Many of us have been praying and continue to pray every day for spiritual revival in this nation. Cardinal Dolan of New York said a while back that he was beginning to sense the beginning spiritual revival in our nation.
At this morning’s prayer breakfast under the dome of the U.S. Capitol the President called everyone’s attention to a statue of John Winthrop (1588-1649) and reminded everyone present of John Winthrop’s admonition that we need to be a “city upon a hill” for all the world to see. (Ronald Reagan often quoted this same phrase of Winthrop’s). It comes from a paragraph in a sermon preached by John Winthrop the full text of which paragraph is as follows:
“Now the only way to avoid this shipwreck, and to provide for our posterity, is to follow the counsel of Micah, to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God. For this end, we must be knit together, in this work, as one man. We must entertain each other in brotherly affection. We must be willing to abridge ourselves of our superfluities, for the supply of other’s necessities. We must uphold a familiar commerce together in all meekness, gentleness, patience and liberality. We must delight in each other; make other’s conditions our own; rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work, as members of the same body. So shall we keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. The Lord will be our God, and delight to dwell among us, as his own people, and will command a blessing upon us in all our ways. So that we shall see much more of his wisdom, power, goodness and truth, than formerly we have been acquainted with. We shall find that the God of Israel is among us, when ten of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies; when he shall make us a praise and glory that men shall say of succeeding plantations, “the Lord make it like that of New England.” For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world. We shall open the mouths of enemies to speak evil of the ways of God, and all professors for God’s sake. We shall shame the faces of many of God’s worthy servants, and cause their prayers to be turned into curses upon us till we be consumed out of the good land whither we are going.” (from “A Model of Christian Charity” [popularly known as the “City on a Hill Speech” by John Winthrop at Holyrood Church in Southampton, England,March 21, 1630)
May I respectfully proffer that these words were inspired and for that reason remain an inspiration to all of us (most especially the pro-life community – without life nothing else matters because there is nothing to matter). As our nation again becomes a pro-life “city on a hill” the world will see and copy-cat. They did in the past. They have before.
We say “Pro-Life city on a hill” and not just “city on a hill” because first off all, you must have “life” before you have a city and the truth of life is that all men are created equal and hence fit together best in a “democracy” where all men are equal under the law and the people rule the government (free elections) – not the government rule the people.
God is pro-life because He is the author of life. To strike at life is to strike at God.
Leave a Reply