General

At the recent Urbana Conference, 16,000 young people responded to David Platts’ revolutionary message and committed to help change the world. In less than 24 hours, his four thousand Radical books sold out.

Last week, Jason Hershey, director YWAM Washington, D.C. and Washington House of Prayer, and another band of young radicals stood on the steps of the US Supreme Court and declared a breakthrough of God’s love and truth in the American nation.

I was there to support them. A loving, uncompromising generation of young radicals are being raised up. Call it the Jesus Revolution times one hundred.

Let’s support them.

Jason Hershey on behalf of the young generation, March 8, 2013:

“First of all, I want everyone to know that those of us that have gathered here have all had real encounters with Jesus.  We are believers through and through, because we have tasted and seen His goodness and powerful hand working in and through our lives.  Some of us have had our physical bodies supernaturally healed as we prayed and Jesus answered.  Others of us, have been rescued out of lives of depression, anger and hurt.”

“As it turns out, God’s good and actually loves us!  We are convinced that he has only good things in mind for America! I promise you, that you will not find a more hopeful people in all of America than this rag-tag band of Jesus lovers here beside me!”

“We have gathered here today, not to condemn, criticize, or judge.  Neither do we have an offended heart.  We are here with gratitude bursting inside of us as to the plans that Jesus has for our generation!  We have gathered here simply to lay out a clear road map for our generation to the path of life and hope for America.” 

“Specifically, the fork in the road that in front of this Court and this generation right now is the issue of marriage. March 26 and 27, the Supreme Court will hear two cases dealing with the definition of marriage.  We pray that the Supreme Court would have wisdom on these cases beyond even our time and place. Proverbs 9:10 says, ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding'”  

“Knowing God as our closest friend brings us to understanding!  And honoring and respecting Him is the beginning of wisdom.  So does God have an opinion on marriage. If He was writing his opinion. What would it say? As it turns out, his opinion is already clearly stated and written down for all to read.  In America, the Bible, is available to anyone at any bookstore or on the Web.”

“The best way to learn how to spot a counterfeit isn’t by studying the counterfeit, but by studying the real. I once was told that Federal agents in training, to spot counterfeits for the first little, don’t look at counterfeit bills.  All they do is study the real.  If you study the real long enough, you will be able to spot a counterfeit every single time.”

“So this morning I will paint a picture of the real.  Marriage was God’s idea in the first place.  In the beginning, God made the heaven’s and the earth. He made Adam and Eve, male and female.  That’s the first key.  Men and women are fundamentally different from each other.  Male and Female, They are different.  It’s one thing to have an affection towards someone that’s the same as you.  It’s completely differently to love some one that’s different than you.”

“So Adam and Eve became the original first marriage and the expression of the real. God took the first man and woman on the planet, and placed them together in a Garden called Eden with the instructions to be fruitful and multiply.”

“Here’s the second key.  God loves people.  He has so much love that he wants as many people as possible!  If a relationship can’t bring forth life and fulfill God’s dream for more people on the planet, it’s not the real!”

“God made us to be in a friendship with Him.  Adam and Eve walked in the cool of the day with God as their friend.  The would walk and talk with God openly in complete oneness with him in friendship. God gave them the ability to have children, but they could only have children through the act of oneness in relationship.  Adam, nor Eve, could have children without the intimacy of the other!  Children were meant to be conceived in love.”

“But what is love?  Love by definition is an unselfish choice for the others highest good. Children were meant to be born into a home where both Dad and Mom were unselfishly loving each other and unselfishly loving their children.”

“So this is the picture of the real:  One man and one woman, walking together in friendship with God, unselfishly, in love with God and in love with each other.  In the midst of that, children were to be born. This is life.  This is the meaning of life, that we know God intimately, like a husband would know a wife, and that we would love Him and each other unselfishly.”

“I can’t tell you want a joy it is to the father of a family where one man, one woman and four children, walk together each day in friendship with God, hearing his voice, and seeing his miracles.  My life is like Eden or Heaven.  Really, Heaven is the dream of Eden restored. God and people dwelling together once again.”

“This is what a real marriage and family looks like: One man, one woman, with children living with and loving God and each other loyally, unselfishly. every day for the rest of their lives. Anything else is counterfeit.  To call counterfeit money the same as the real would cheapens the currency of the real and would break our economy, leaving our nation in poverty.”

“Our message to the Supreme Court is simply this: Don’t muddy the waters between what’s real and counterfeit.  Both DOMA and Prop 8 were passed legally, in line with the constitutional processes. Neither of them violate moral law, but simple define marriage as what it is. Sexual morality leads to life.  Sexual immorality leads to death.  I plead with you, Supreme Court of the United States.  Choose Life!”

“Our society is only as strong as the number of real families that we have holding it together.  The truth is, for each one of us, our individual brokenness is almost always rooted in the lack of true family when we were children. As a nation we can see families without fathers, children without care and abuse of all sorts horrific types.  It’s time we aim for the real and do all we can to restore the family to it’s God designed amazingness!”

“I appreciated President Obama’s sincerest remarks concerning children and families after the tragedy in Newtown last fall.  You could see his honest grief, knowing there was no way that he could bring back those lost. You could see the weight of the value of human life was upon his soul.”

“In that speech he said, ‘This is our first task — caring for our children.  It’s our first job.  If we don’t get that right, we don’t get anything right. That’s how, as a society, we will be judged. And by that measure, can we truly say, as a nation, that we are meeting our obligations?  Can we honestly say that we’re doing enough to keep our children — all of them– safe from harm? Can we claim, as a nation, that we’re all together there, letting them know that they are loved, and teaching them to love in return?’”

“His questions were rhetorical with the assumed answers of “no we are not” to each question. I agree with him whole-heartedly.”

“President Obama, I want to speak words of destiny into you. Mr President: “You were called to be a Lincoln-type president.  As a white man from Illinois rose up to end slavery, so may a black man from Illinois rise up to be a voice for the children of this generation. Mr. President you have a calling to write an emancipation proclamation for the littlest in America.”

“If you are really serious about protecting children and restoring good families, switch your position on abortion and stand for the true definition of marriage.  Write an emancipation proclamation for the children in the womb. Fulfill your destiny!  You are to be a history maker. You’re destiny isn’t to merely be the pinnacle of the movement Lincoln started, but you are to be play the defining role in the the battle for justice that has waged now for 40 years.”

“It’s time to end abortion.”

“Just like in the days of slavery, our consciences are waking up to the reality of abortion. Yet I know that to allow that conscience awakening to happen fully would mean that suddenly millions of American’s both men and women, would have to admit that they murdered their very own children. So then what do we do with our guilt?  How do we live with ourselves, even as a nation, knowing what we have done?  What do we do with our shame?”

“This is why Jesus came to the earth.  He took the penalty for our selfish, sinful deeds. He came to take away that guilt and shame, so that we could live again, restored to innocence.”

“President Obama, all of us at times have had to wake up and realize, we were wrong.  It’s humbling to admit, but freedom and blessing are always on the other side.  I am for you and not against you.  You must know that I want you to fulfill your Lincoln-type call.  Mr President, you can’t bring back the dead, but you can give life to the children in the future. Mr. President, End abortion.  this is your watch, and this is your commission. Close the door to innocent bloodshed in our nation!”

“May we, with God’s help, do our part to redeem the true picture of family: One man, one woman, with many children living with and loving God and each other loyally, unselfishly, every day, for their whole lives.”

“The truth is this.  All of us have separated ourselves from God in our selfishness. Since l life is a found in being in friendship with God, the consequences of being separated from him is death.  Jesus came and died on the cross on our behalf and rose again three days later to break the power of sin and death so that we might live with God again and redeem the dream of Eden.  This is His great gift to us.”

“America, I can tell you, we are in desperate need of a new fundamental operating system.  America turn to Jesus, be a child of your Father in heaven and be filled by the Holy Spirit.  “It’s not about me.  It’s all about Jesus now. All you need to do is receive the free gift of his salvation and know that you are forgiven of all your sins!” 

“The Holy Spirit will come into you and you will realize that you’ve never truly lived before!   Your operating system will be filled with the Holy Spirit!  All your anger, lust, impatience, frustration, inner turmoil, anxiety, worry fear, will disappear!  You will begin to hear God talking to you inside your being and your friendship with God will never end. Jesus’ free gift to us is eternal life.  All we need to do is receive it, like Christmas, with much gratitude!”

“Those around me, like myself, have decided that we are not sitting around waiting for our governmental leaders to set a directional course for our nation.”

“And we’re believing God for a breakthrough!”

MAY IT BE SO.

Definition of Illusion:

1. The action of deceiving. The state or fact of being intellectually deceived or misled.

2 A misleading image presented to the vision; something that deceives or misleads intellectually as to cause misinterpretation of its actual nature (Merriam Webster).

When I was a child, the name “Oscar” was associated with a brand of hotdogs and “The Oscars” was an obscure television program and no one much cared about.

How times have changed. Sunday evenings’ “Oscars” broadcast was the longest television program of the year at four hours and eagerly watched by nearly as large a crowd as tuned in on the Super Bowl.

Rapt attention was directed to rented gowns and jewelry worn by stars and starlets whose primary role in life is to entertain people through fakery and fantasy.

This epic American event–which epitomizes the growing secular Western world value system–is based on one very sinister commodity:

Illusion.

The Western World is becoming a Land of Illusions that does not bode well for the future.

First of all, I will admit that I did not sit through the 240 minute ordeal known as the Oscars–but I know many close friends who did. So my knowledge is based on snippets that have been aired since, and they are very enlightening.

To be fair, let’s first of all state some positives about this television extravaganza:

• Actors, producers, directors and the like are all real people who put on their pants the same way that each of us do every day. They’re nothing special–just folks who work in the entertainment industry.
• A few are involved in worthy charities and causes. Fox journalist Bill O’Reilly mentioned attending a Vanity Fair Oscar party on Sunday where he joined up with Conan O’Brien and decided to support a charity that he is starting. Other celebs give to charitable events–and that is a laudable use of their fame and fortune.
• The Oscars program is high class and shows great variety of song, dance, comedy, and cinematic wonder. What they do, they do well in the realm of digital film-making.

Now to the other side of the ledger. The Oscars as a whole, according to the definition above, is greatly an illusion that many of the stars obviously enjoy and embrace. Why is this broadcast and the business it represents an illusion?

• The stars strut across a red carpet and act like they are great heroes that walk the earth today. But there’s little greatness associated with Hollywood. They don’t feed the poor, educate the ignorant, protect our liberties, or do anything worthy of greatness. They just act and produce stories that are mostly fantasy. They distract us from real life and the true heroes that are around us. So why do we worship them and roll out a red carpet for them?
• Seth MacFarlane has a gift of humor, but do you think the angels of heaven were amused when he dropped the joke that “the only one to get inside the head of Abraham Lincoln was John Wilkes Booth?” Really? Making fun of killing America’s most revered president? People should have gasped–not applauded.  Or how did God Himself view a homosexual choir (whom he died for to save from their sins) singing about women bearing their breasts (nudity) on the screen? Does a Holy God laugh at such perverse debauchery?
• Many of Hollywood’s elite are some of the most corrupt and promiscuous people on earth. They’ve probably destroyed the image of marriage and family more than any other group in the history of the world. Yet we admire them on the tube with their latest wife or girl-friend on their arm when they are leading the entire world into moral and family-values chaos?
• And finally, let us remember that Hollywood is mostly fake–from beginning to end. Though they occasionally do a good job at re-creating history (such as this year’s Lincoln), they mostly produce fanciful stories that lower our morals, teach us untruths about life and relationships, glorify violence (and then they crusade for gun control!), and rake in billions of dollars that are spent on destroying the greatness of Western civilization.

Do you get the picture? An illusion. They appear to be great and worthy of emulation, but in reality they are more drug-ridden, family-breaking, and moral-lowering in influence than probably any other aspect of Western society.

Hollywood has become the capital city of the Land of Illusions called the Western World. That’s one reason why I rarely watch movies or television (I don’t want to support the fantasies) but have spent the past two years praying for many of the movers and shakers in Tinseltown in my morning quiet times.

I want them to be saved–for their lives to be changed–and for them to use their incredible gifts, not to numb and distract the world, but to bless it through righteous story-telling.

But Hollywood is not the only purveyor of the illusions of Western nations and culture. A number of other great modern deceptions come to mind:

1. The Welfare State Illusion

Western nations have been telling us for years, beginning with Europe and now accelerating in America, that the way to fairness and prosperity is for governments to control our lives from the cradle to the grave via the Nanny State. But this is a deception, an illusion, because governments don’t make wealth, they just take it from some and give it to others. They create poverty, not blessing. And eventually they implode from the weight of the false promises that can never be fulfilled.

They even give their programs illusionary names. Take the “Patient’s Protection and Affordable Care Act” more commonly called Obamacare. It is essentially the first step toward nationalized medicine. It’s name is totally deceptive. It does not protect patients better than the private system and it is certainly not affordable. A General Accounting Office (GAO) study came out today that states that Obamacare will cost 6.2 trillion dollars more than advertised.

It’s an illusion–as are most of the promises of the welfare state.

2. The Re-defining of Marriage Illusion

I’ve written extensively on the current move to change the five thousand year definition of marriage. Two cases have now been brought to the US Supreme Court and will be ruled on in the coming months. The Obama Administration is going against current federal law (the Defense of Marriage Act) and aggressively pushing the re-definition of marriage. But this is a deception, an out-an-out illusion. Only a man and woman can marry. All sex outside of that God-ordained covenant is sinful and hurtful.

The Western World will curse many generations if it continues to destroy the sanctity of marriage.

3. Financial Illusions

In America, the current illusion is the hand-wringing going on over what’s called sequestration–a 2.4 percent cut in the increase of the 2013 budget–which was the president’s idea that he now says will cause havoc and disaster in the nation.

A 2.4 percent cut in budget increase? This is no cut at all, just a minute way of slowing the growth of the monster of government–46 billion measly dollars in a 3.6 trillion dollar budget.

This is just the latest in a series of financial lies that are bringing America and the West to judgment day sometime soon. The biggest illusion of all? That debt and deficits don’t matter. Sixteen trillion dollars in debt? No problem. Just keep printing money, throw in QE 3, 4 and 5, and pretend that everything is kosher.

A time of tragic reckoning is coming to the West for its profligate and unconscionable spending. The current house of economic cards is built on an illusion. The house is coming down.

5. Security Illusions

I believe most people in the Western World believe that they are relatively secure in their personal peace and pursuit of affluence. But we live in a very dangerous world. World War I came without warning and World War II followed in the same vain. Just might there be a World War III in front of us where nine different nations have nuclear weapons, the Islamicists are waging a global jihad, and an economic collapse will create a multi-polar world where liberties can be taken away in an instant?

If you think you are secure in the 21st century, you are most certainly naive. Things are not as they look from behind our safe and secure western borders. It is a desperately important time to watch and pray. Our security must be found in walking with God alone.

Many years ago I was invited to a private mansion in Texas where a famous illusionist was putting on a  dinner party. (I don’t remember how I got invited, must have been a mistake.). There were about fifty high society guests in the room for the magic show–which was breath-taking.

The illusionist did trick after trick that absolutely filled you with wonder. How did he do that? How could he read our minds, levitate bodies, and make things appear and disappear?

I must admit I was impressed. But when the show was finished, the illusionist did a very unusual thing. He sat down in front of the crowd and told us how he pulled off all the stunts.

I don’t remember his exact words, but this was the essence of his art: Illusion is all about deliberately getting you to think or look for one thing while the magician does another. It’s all about getting you to look in the wrong direction so that a different impression can be believed.

As I went to my hotel after the presentation, I thought about the greatest of all illusionists–Lucifer.  The essence of his craft is to factually deceive or mislead human beings. You think one thing is good and right or likely, but it reality, it is the opposite.

Back to the Oscars. I’m sure that most people who watched or participated in the Sunday marathon were led to believe that these were the most blessed people on earth (red carpet and all). But when they die and face God for the lives and lies they have lived, the truth may be just the opposite.

They were the most needy and confused people among us.

Be careful about what you see and believe. The Western World is becoming a Land of Illusions. What illusions might you have in your life? How can you expose them through walking in obedience to God and his truth?