ANOTHER COFFEE BREAK: PICTURES OF TRIBULATION & WRATH, Part 5

Another Coffee Break:

Pictures of Tribulation & Wrath, Part 5

Much change is in the wind -- not just for the body of Christ -- but for us as a family. I've periodically shared our plan and intention of returning to Alaska. More than 60 years have passed since my first experience of being in Heaven and having the Lord tell me that He was going to pour out His Spirit in unprecedented manner (think John 14:12) across Alaska. He made it clear that what happened in Alaska would spread and fan out across North America. The last thing He said about this move of the Spirit was that part of His purpose for me was to be directly involved and to play an integral part.

I can't say yet -- even all these years afterward -- that I have a complete understanding of what that "integral part" is, but we do have an initial objective. That objective is to revisit all of the communities where my parents pioneered and to share in the churches I helped them to build. We'll see where the Lord takes all of that, but here are the communities we expect to share with: Nome, Barrow, Kaktovik (Barter Island), Nuiqsut, Atqasuk, Wainwright, Point Hope, Kotzebue, and Saint Paul Island. Dad didn't build the churches in Nuiqsut and Atqasuk, but he designed them and ordered the building materials for their construction. (Those churches came into being as a byproduct of an outpouring of the Holy Spirit that took place in Barrow, Wainwright and Point Hope during the late 1950's and early 1960's.

Now, all of that to say that after a nearly 12-year absence from Zales Jewelers, the company asked Della to take over management of their largest store in Anchorage as of October 15. It is a strange irony -- and a case of things coming full circle -- that Della began a long career with Zales in that very same store some 28 years ago -- and it was anything but their largest store at the time. What this means is that we're in the middle of hustling to get things in a state of readiness for this move. Della will be there ahead of me. I will remain behind until things are wrapped up here in Sunnyside and in the Valley -- or at least brought to a place of order so that I can head north.

God's plans for us, and His economy are so cool! This is not quite the way we had imagined our return, but -- Oh well!!! -- we just flex with what Holy Spirit is doing and saying, and move accordingly as He opens the doors.

Before we get on with today's discussion, I'd like to make an announcement. Several years ago as a result of a series of visions and experiences in the realm of the Spirit, I launched into an effort to record my experiences in book form. That effort has undergone many re-writes in a desire to capture the essence of what I saw and experienced, and share what the Lord was speaking to the body of Christ -- and particularly, the Bride of Christ.

At this point, it is fair to say that this process may well result in not less than a dozen books. What I am pleased to announce is that the first of those books -- A TALE OF TWO BRIDES -- is due for release shortly by Destiny Image Publishers. It should show up first in the coming weeks as an e-Book, available from a number of different sources, and -- after the first of the year sometime -- in softcover form.

This book is prophecy shared in dramatic form. Though written partially like a novel, it is a graphic portrayal of the character differences and starkly contrasting responses between Esther and Vashti. It is a depiction of the preparation each of these two women went through in order to become the bride of an earthly "king of kings" whom we know alternately from Scripture as Ahasuerus and from history as Xerxes I.

It is also an allegory of the preparation processes taking place in God's people in this hour as they prepare for the coming of the King of Kings, and a portrayal of two kinds of people with differing responses who make up the body of Christ.

A TALE OF TWO BRIDES is both biblically accurate and factual as far as recorded history demonstrates. You won't find some of the conversations recorded historically or in any archaeological findings; they are recorded as I ..... well ..... let's just leave it there. Watch for it -- and get your copy as soon as it is released.

OK, time to get on with today's sharing.

Remember where we left off a few weeks back? We'd just talked about calamities that followed the release of the four angels who were bound up in the River Euphrates, and the fact that the accompanying plagues and disasters resulted in the deaths of one-third of the human race. Chapter 9 of Revelation ends with the following commentary.

"And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts."

As noted in the last Coffee Break we did on tribulation and wrath, the purpose of these plagues and catastrophic events is to get people to repent. So far we haven't seen the wrath of God. Despite all the chaos which unfolds during this time of tribulation on the earth, Father God has yet to pour out His wrath! When He does, folks, the earth will see and KNOW the difference between tribulation and wrath.

Revelation 11 tells us that unregenerate and unrepentant mankind are going to see one final opportunity to see the power of God on display. The human race will see prophecy on display in a dimension hitherto unknown in the form of two witnesses. There are several different portrayals of these witnesses in the Word.

Daniel (see chapter 12) sees two beings clothed in white linen standing on either side of a river. Zechariah sees them as two olive trees and alternately as two olive branches (see chapter 4). John sees them first as Zechariah's olive trees, and then sees them as two golden candlesticks. He specifically tells us in Revelation 11:3-6:

And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth. And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed. These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.

Obviously, the intended goal here is to bring as many people to repentance as possible. Some folks just don't listen or pay attention and God's purpose is to get people to awaken to the fact that this old earth -- as all of us have known it -- is not going to survive in its present form because of what we might ordinarily refer to as "natural disasters."

If they can be called "natural" it is only because they are the natural result of the earth and its atmosphere being contaminated by such sin and its pollution as the world was never created to withstand. There are a couple of illustrations in the Word that make this clear.

First, the apostle Paul expressed himself like this: "For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now." (Romans 8:

Two words in this statement really stand out in the original Greek text. The first one -- sustenazo-- (translated, "groaneth") literally translates out like this: to moan jointly, to experience a common calamity. The second word -- sunodino-- (translated, "travaileth") is a graphic portrayal of the pain of childbirth, and literally means: to have parturition pangs in company (or simultaneously) with; to sympathize; to empathize.

Now, take a look at something that David writes as he is in the midst of great evil: "In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, eveninto his ears. Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because he was wroth. There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it." (Psalm 18:6-8)

Again David writes in the 60th Psalm, "O God, You have rejected us. You have broken us; You have been angry; O, restore us. You have made the land quake, You have split it open; Heal its breaches, for it totters. You have made Your people experience hardship; You have given us wine to drink that makes us stagger."

One last illustration for contrast comes from Isaiah's prophecy over Lucifer. (See Isaiah 14:16-17)

"They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, andconsider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?"

David twice (actually much more than that throughout the Psalms) speaks of the Lord causing natural disasters because of his wrath which was incurred by wickedness. But Isaiah makes reference to physical and political chaos caused by Satan. There is a distinct difference, however, between what happens (and what is soon to take place) when the wrath of God is incurred.

God's wrath is intended to wipe out the wickedness upon the earth. As Paul noted in his letter to the Romans, the whole earth is moaning and groaning and suffering calamities under the weight and the influence of sin. I've heard folks say -- and I've seen a number of Christians in their ignorance repeat this -- that "a loving God could not and would not bring calamity and disaster upon people.

Let me correct this misinformation.

First of all, David makes it clear that God DOES bring calamity and disasters (we tend to call them "natural disasters") upon the human race, but everything He does has a redemptive purpose! [Here's a side-note for you: even the insurance industry recognizes that there are "acts of God" for which there is no seeming natural cause.]

Secondly, let's go back to the time of Creation. Six times in Genesis 1 we read that "God saw that it was good." That word "good" in our English texts is translated from the Hebrew tob(pronounced, "tobe") We can expand that translation like this: good, orderly, peaceful, beautiful, pleasant, productive, prosperous, well-ordered -- and here's the big one -- bountiful.

Get it? Well-ordered? Orderly? Bountiful (as in multiplying)?

Sin, wickedness, evil, etc., are the exact opposite of the tob God saw when He finished with Creation. They disturb the careful balance, the equilibrium of the earth and its balance on its axis, not to mention the atmosphere that surrounds the earth. Sin, left to its devices; wickedness left unchecked; evil permitted to run rampant, all works together and cooperates to affect the very geologic and atmospheric constitution of the earth and our environment.

Let me break for just a second to offer an observation that some will consider political -- and it is not intended for that purpose. Environmentalists miss the mark because they want to correct the imbalance that is taking place in our various environments by imposing laws, regulations, taxes -- you name it -- and they fail to recognize that our environments are polluted spiritually!

It is spiritual wickedness, it is sin, it is evil that is causing all these things to happen. Natural pollution is hardly the cause. Global warming is a natural cyclical event on the earth for the purpose of correcting atmospheric imbalance. There's nothing "man-made" about it! It isn't the result of burning fossil fuels. It isn't the result of too much carbon dioxide. It isn't the result of the excessive use of certain chemicals. God made it so to keep the earth in proper balance.

Let me take this another step.

Whenever we see major hurricanes (like Andrew, Hugo, Katrina, etc), whenever we see major earthquakes (there've been many throughout history, but more in the past century than in all of previous recorded history combined), whenever we see tsunamis (think of the one that wiped out more than a quarter million people at the end of 2004, or the one that devastated Japan this past year), whenever we see major volcanic eruptions, whenever we see the F-3, F-4 and F-5 tornadoes that strike the country bringing horrendous damage and wiping out (in some cases) whole communities, we are seeing events which are a direct result of the earth rocking and reeling under the weight of sin and the pollution in the spiritual atmosphere.

Some folks are going to think I've just gone WAYYY off the beaten track, but let me remind you of some basic fundamentals -- some spiritual laws which supersede every natural law!

Law 1:The earth (and our universe) came into being by the spoken Word of God. It was not simply some accident or random event caused by colliding stars, or even by a "Big Bang."

Law 2:When God speaks His very breath comes forth. Incorporated in His breath is His Spirit!

Law 3:Everything created by God has perfect order and perfect symmetry, naturally, spiritually, scientifically, etc., etc., etc.

Law 4:With God's creation comes precise order and balance. That order and balance govern not only the earth itself, but the entire universe.

Law 5:God warned Adam and Eve that the natural order of their creation would be upset, that the balance of perfect, immortal life (as He created them to exist) would cease IF they traded the perfection of His revealed knowledge to them for humanly acquired knowledge. The specific methodology for this trade came in the form of eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

There are other laws we could cite but let's simply apply these to the events currently unfolding, and those that are shortly to take place.

Adam's decision to eat of that tree violated the exactitude and meticulousness of the divine order in which he (and all mankind which followed) and Eve were created. It altered the balance of nature God had so carefully established. It triggered a sequence of events to follow which would ultimately pollute the earth itself, render the soil incapable of producing in the way that God originally designed it to produce, and subsequently alter the critical balance of the atmosphere surrounding the earth.

The events which followed throughout the next millennia and a half multiplied the pollution to such an extent that God could no longer stand by and watch His beautiful creation return to the chaos that existed when His Spirit brooded over the waters (Genesis 1:2). He first issued an edict that man's days would be normally limited to 120 years. His anger was so inflamed at the sin, the chaos, the pollution which had so ruined His creation that He released destruction upon the entire earth in the form of a cataclysmic flood, wiping out mankind, the beasts of the field, the fowls of the air and every creeping thing of creation, saving alive only Noah, his family, and pairs of every species of animal and bird (except for those which would yield sustaining life for mankind ["clean" animals], in which case there were seven pairs).

With that pollution wiped out, the flood waters receded and the earth began to return to its once pristine beauty.

The purpose of God's wrath being revealed and released upon the earth was so that His original Plan for beings with whom He could fellowship -- at His level of fellowship** -- would resume. This has ALWAYS been His objective since before the very first words of Creation were spoken. God's plan has always been to have a family of beings who were and are just like Him, a family of supernaturals (and I use that word rather loosely) who would exhibit His character, His personality, His love -- His very essence!

[**The level of fellowship God is after envisions and requires a species of being who thinks and acts like Him and operates in His level of wisdom and understanding.]

When I refer to a "family of supernaturals" I'm talking about a people who have overcome this "sub-natural" realm -- the realm of sin, the realm that perverts the perfect order God first established, the realm of stubbornness and rebellion; in other words, I'm referring to this place that folks think of today as the "natural" order of things. It is anything but "natural" or "normal."

Sin stops and prevents the development of a family of supernaturals. It interferes with God's plan and purpose. It perverts the fulfillment and completion of the "I AM" as He purposed from before Creation. And that perversion incurs and incites the wrath of God.

OK! It looks like I need to stop and continue this discussion later -- and hopefully finish it up with one more Coffee Break.

See you again soon.

(Steven Shelley is a friend, a fellow-pastor and a brother in the Lord whose ministry I have come to respect and greatly appreciate, especially in the last few years. Following is a short excerpt from a prophetic word he delivered in a recent conference.)

"The Angel of the Lord explained to me that the true baptism of the Holy Spirit would prepare the way for the white eagle. He said the white eagle represented a revelation of the fullness of Jesus Christ; not just a greater knowledge of Him, but an infilling and indwelling of the very character and virtues of Jesus.

This revelation would produce the living Word made flesh again, not just in one man as in the days of the Lord Jesus Christ, but in a whole company of Believers. This message would act as a plumb line, a measuring device to gauge the uprightness of all words given to the end time Bride of Jesus Christ.

I spoke out to those in the room, "The world has never seen what it will see in the Bride. Fools will mock and reject it, some religious leaders will scorn it, but His true Bride will receive it with gladness."

I believe these words were referring to the Lord doing a new thing that will not follow historical revival patterns but will have a distinct model and administration. It will be an expansion of the ministry model of the Lord Jesus Christ as seen in the Gospels.It will be authority and power functioning and flowing in a corporate Body of Believers especially chosen for this purpose, even before the foundation of the world.

(Steven's entire prophetic word is available for you to read at http://www.elijahlist.com/words/display_word.html?ID=11489)

Blessings on you!

Regner

Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES

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ANOTHER COFFEE BREAK: THE STATE OF THE NATION, Part 2

Another Coffee Break:

The State of Our Nation, Part 2

Thanks to all those who have written in and expressed their appreciation for the things I've been sharing in the series on tribulation and wrath.  While these truths have been with me for a number of years, there really has been a fresh outpouring of understanding and revelation in the past weeks and months as I have followed the direction of Holy Spirit to share this.  We will return to that series next week as we take a different approach and consider the wrath of God.

Let me simply dive in once again to this review of the spiritual, emotional and political state of our nation, and talk about the why's and wherefore's of our need to spend these last weeks prior to the election in some serious prayer and intercession.  I've shared some of these comments in previous Coffee Breaks, but they bear repeating.  Following is an amplified version of some commentary I provided as a guest columnist this past week in our local newspaper.

Without realizing it at the time, my father did a great deal to inspire me to become involved in the political process.  When Dwight D. Eisenhower was running for President in 1952 against Adlai Stevenson, Dad frequently offered up commentary on the political process, and on the ills of our nation.  I once asked him why he didn't run for President and he replied, "Son, God didn't call me to political office.  He didn't call me to run for President.  He called me to preach the Gospel, and that's what I'm doing."  It was the first time that I actually realized God does call some people to political office and to government.

It was perhaps 14 years later that I sat on an Alaska Airlines flight to Seattle with the then-chairman of the Alaska Republican Party.  We had known each other at a distance for several years and he urged me to run for the U. S. House of Representatives in the upcoming election.  I had already committed to take on the youth ministry at Bethel Union Church in Duarte, California (and in fact was headed there) and declined his offer of support.  But it planted a seed that would grow during the coming years.

It would be another dozen years or so before I actually got involved personally in the political process, and I won't take the time in this commentary to recount my various political activities other than to say that I have actively campaigned for folks (and co-managed one gubernatorial campaign) on both sides of the political aisle, based in large part on their stance as committed Christians and support for issues that affect our liberties as believers in Christ Jesus.

Allow me to pose something for your serious consideration.  It's time we asked ourselves if we still know the freedoms intended for us by our Founding Fathers.  James Madison said, "We base all our experiments on the capacity of mankind for self government."   The idea?  That government was beholden to the people, that it had no other source of power is still the newest, most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man.

In one of Ronald Reagan's speeches nearly 30 years ago he made a statement that almost sounds like he wrote it for the election we have some four weeks from now.  Reagan said, "This is the issue of this upcoming election: whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that intellectual elites in Washington can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.

"We've been told we must choose between a left or right, but I would suggest that in politics there is more than just a left or right.  There is an up or down: Up to man's age-old dream -- the maximum of individual freedom consistent with order -- or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. Regardless of their sincerity or humanitarian motives, those who would sacrifice freedom for security have embarked on this downward path."

Now let me address my next comments to the "extreme right." (I've been accused of being wayyy too far to the right, but I submit that I'm simply "on the right" from the perspective of what the Word defines as "right."(Grin!)  What makes people jump so far to the so-called "right" is that they want to IMMEDIATELY undo the changes introduced into American Law and society by the leftist, socialist-driven judges of the past 50-plus years.

Patience, my friends!  Patience!  That reversal IS going to come; and those changes are not that far away.

We WILL see an ultimate reversal of Roe v. Wade and an eventual ruling that life begins at conception or fertilization.  We WILL see it!

We WILL see the Constitution properly interpreted so that the rights of Christians are no longer infringed upon -- so that Christians and Christianity is not infringed upon or interfered with by Federal or State or Local government(s).  We WILL see the restoration of the Ten Commandments in public venues.  We WILL see the return of the Bible as an acceptable text in our public schools, in the same way that it was for some 200 years of our nation's history.

We WILL see the homosexual agenda driven back, along with the executive orders which have been issued by the current administration in violation of the doctrine of the separation of powers enshrined by the Founding Fathers in our Constitution.

Our society has degenerated into a "me first" society, with special interest groups demanding their "rights."  What our Constitution does NOT guarantee is the right of one group to have more chances than another group to succeed in our society.  Opportunity abounds on every hand for those willing to get out and take advantage of it.

Despite the cries we hear from the anti-American crowd both here in America and abroad, people are trying to get to this country -- both legally and illegally -- because America provides more opportunities for those willing to make whatever effort is required to prosper.  This nation is by far the most prosperous nation on the face of the earth.  It is the ONLY Nation that -- for more than 225 years -- has had as its motto, "In God We Trust."

There is a fundamental spiritual principle that underlies our nation's founding.  We find that principle revealed in Proverbs 11:11: "By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted: but it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked." 

Again we read in Proverbs 14:34, "Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people."

From the earliest foundations of this nation, we have had pastors and church leaders serving at just about every level in our Federal Government.  In the Records of the Federal Convention of 1787 (Yale University Press, 1911: Vol. 1, pp 450-452) James Madison records the comments of Benjamin Franklin in a portion of his address to Congress:

I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings, that "except the Lord build the House, they labor in vain that build it." I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without His concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better, than the Builders of Babel: We shall be divided by our partial local interests; our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and bye word down to future ages. And what is worse, mankind may hereafter from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing governments by human wisdom and leave it to chance, war and conquest.

I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate in that service.

Jedediah Morse, the "father of American Geography," delivered a sermon at the swearing in of John Adams when he became the second President of the United States.  In that sermon, he stated, "To the kindly influence of Christianity we owe that degree of civil freedom, and political and social happiness which mankind now enjoys. . . . Whenever the pillars of Christianity shall be overthrown, our present republican forms of government, and all blessings which flow from them, must fall with them."

Yes, Ma'am!  Yes, Sir!  Once again, "Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people."  We as Christians have a solemn responsibility before God to get involved in our affairs of government.

When I ran for Congress in 2003-2004, a friend -- Tony W. Smith -- who was a political consultant helped me craft the following as a part of the foundation of my campaign and my stance as a Constitutional conservative:

I believe that the writings of the U.S. Constitution apply to every man, woman, boy or girl who is a citizen of the United States. There should never be a distinction between a natural born citizen and a naturalized citizen.

I believe the Constitution should apply equally to every citizen, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity (which is simply a circumstance of birth), religion, or political affiliation. The Constitution creates a representative government "Of the People, By the People and For the People."

I believe that the Constitution must apply to government at all levels, from one's home town city council or school board to Washington D.C. I also believe that when we choose a representative, they should actually represent us. When they do not, I believe that they must be removed and someone else chosen who will represent us.

Public servants say, always with the best of intentions, "What greater service we could render if only we had a little more money and a little more power." But the truth is that outside of its legitimate function, government does nothing as well or as economically as the private sector.  Our Founding Fathers never designed America's government to replace the private sector.

All political power and influence should flow from the grass roots upward, not from government down to the people.  All human rights are granted by God, not by government.  Government exists primarily to protect the God-given rights of its citizens.  The Constitution was written by wise men under the inspiration of God; and the original intent of the Founders is as valid and binding today as it was in their day.

No government in any nation can replace private enterprise, its abilities, its inventiveness and its ingenuity.  That's not its purpose.  Neither has it been anointed by God or commissioned to replace the body of Christ in its support of the needy.  Yet any time you and I question the schemes of the do-gooders, we're denounced as being opposed to their humanitarian goals.

Throughout history, every single nation that has accepted and endorsed homosexuality has disintegrated, been defeated by stronger nations and scattered into oblivion.  This is the judgment of the Lord against this sin.  Homosexuality makes a lie of the purposes of God.  It flies in the face of the picture of Jesus Christ and the love He has for His Bride, His people.  It distorts and perverts the whole purpose of creation and procreation.

What we must have, as the apostle Paul so appropriate describes it, is a government that allows us “to lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.” (see I Timothy 2:2)

This nation was founded as a Christian nation.  It was founded upon solid family foundations.  We must return to those foundations and rebuild.  Will you help me begin that rebuilding on November 6th?

The Psalmist David wrote, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, and the people He hath chosen for an inheritance.”  (Psalm 33:12)

The apostle Paul instructs us, "I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.  For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth."  (see I Timothy 2:1-2)

Our first responsibility as Christians, therefore, is to pray for our government, for our nation, for our people -- BEFORE we pray for anything else!

Why?

Because righteousness exalts a nation and sin is a reproach to the people of that nation.  Because a nation led by righteous leaders will facilitate a quiet and peaceable life in all Godliness and honesty.  Because a nation led by righteous leaders, IN righteousness, will facilitate an environment in which men can be "saved and come unto the knowledge of the Truth."

Finally, for us to have righteous leadership in the nation, Christians MUST become involved at every level.  That means we have to be involved in a political party.  It is through political parties that we choose our leadership, first at the local, secondly at the county or regional level, then at the state and finally at the federal level.

I've heard more Christians than I can count make the remark, "Well, God didn't call me to get involved in politics."  Really?  That's about as cheap a cop-out as I've ever heard!

Maybe He didn't call you to run for office, but you can't avoid your responsibility to be involved.  If we are going to have Christians -- born again, committed, Holy Spirit-led Christians -- governing the affairs of our cities, our counties, our states and our national government, we have to be involved.  I'm not telling folks to become Republicans or Democrats.  I'm saying they need to get involved.

The reason why the Republican Party has become a party of RINO's is because compromisers have been allowed to be in authority in the party, causing it to swerve from its conservative, Christian roots.  The reason why the Democratic Party has become the voice of insanity and shrill, hateful rhetoric is because Christians have abandoned the party to leftists, socialists and communists.  Both parties have been contaminated by extremists who have neither the will nor the backbone to hear and respond to the direction God has, and has had, for America.

Having a different political philosophy is one thing.  Allowing the God-hating, the unrighteous, and the wicked to take control of the party is another thing altogether.  There's only one place where we can lay the responsibility for that happening: at the feet of God's people who have abdicated their responsibility for spiritual oversight of the nation.

Wake up, folks!  Do you want a righteous judiciary?  Do you want a righteous President?  Do you want righteous governors, senators, congressmen, state leaders and mayors of cities?  First, get on your knees and begin to fulfill your responsibility in intercession.  Secondly, get involved with the party that God instructs you to get involved in!  Don't pick a political party because it's what you grew up with, because your friends are involved, or because it just seems to fit your political philosophy.  Get involved where the Holy Spirit leads you.  Make a difference – not so much for the party's politics, but for righteousness' sake!

I cannot emphasize enough just how critical it is that YOU become involved NOW at the precinct level, at the county level, at the state, and at the federal level in shaping the policies and stances of your political party according to the dictates of the Holy Spirit -- not the whims of deceitful men!  Della and I have served at the precinct level, the county level, and the state level; and we have had the privilege of influencing national affairs, even if it was in the tiniest of ways; so my remarks come from both conviction and personal experience!

Once again, let me repeat: this nation was founded as a Christian nation.  It was founded upon solid Godly family foundations.  We must return to those foundations and rebuild.  Will you help me begin the rebuilding on November 6th?

"Throughout our history, we have been a blessing to other nations. And it is my belief that from a benevolent standpoint, the church in America has made America great. No matter what difficulties we have gone through, we have always been a generous people. We give to those who are suffering from disasters or hard times, both in our own country and in other nations.

I believe this generosity allows us to hold onto God’s redemptive thread as a nation. By caring for those in need, the church has given the nation access to God’s promise in Isaiah 58:8, that in our time of need for healing, our “recovery would speedily spring forth.”

Samuel was instrumental to the reconfirming of God’s covenant with Israel following Hophni and Phineas’ destructive leadership tenure. Samuel represented a new generation—a righteous priesthood to replace that which was profaned. He was an uncompromised, prophetic voice of courage used by God to call the people back to His ways.

I believe in our own nation, God is going to raise up a new, prophetic voice of courage, one that will call our nation back to God. This Samuel generation will challenge the unjust judiciaries and corrupt politicians. They will refill the lamp of God with the oil of the Spirit and restore His light within the church.

Our restoration as a nation, however, requires that we take an honest look at our true state. We cannot continue on as we have been and expect different results. To remain on the same path will only mean a further moral decline.  God used Samuel to show Israel their true state. His predecessor, Eli, had lost his eyesight. Eli had allowed the evil his sons were committing to continue. He maintained the status quo. As a result, the Lord had to raise up Samuel to expose the true state of Israel’s leadership.

I believe God wants to empower a generation in our land who will serve this same purpose. They are unwilling to allow the evil that is being committed to continue unchecked. They are not interested in maintaining the status quo. Their concern is for the true state of the church and of the nation, and they will be courageous in speaking forth God’s truth."  (Prophetic Word from Doug Stringer)

Blessings on you!

Regner

Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES

709 South 7^th Street
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
(509) 515-0133

All Coffee Break articles are copyright by Regner A. Capener, but authorization for reprinting, reposting, copying or re-use, in whole or in part, is granted – provided proper attribution and this notice are included intact.  Older Coffee Break archives are temporarily available at http://regnersrangers.multiply.com/journal/ and are being slowly added at http://www.AnotherCoffeeBreak.com as well as http://anothercoffeebreak.blogspot.com/.  Coffee Break articles are normally published weekly.

If you would like to have these articles arrive each morning in your email, please send a blank email to: Subscribe@AnotherCoffeeBreak.com.  To unsubscribe, send a blank email to Unsubscribe@AnotherCoffeeBreak.com.

CAPENER MINISTRIES is a tax-exempt church ministry. Should you desire to participate and covenant with us as partners in this ministry, please contact us at either of the above email or physical addresses, or visit http://www.RiverWorshipCenter.org.

ANOTHER COFFEE BREAK: THE STATE OF OUR NATION

Another Coffee Break:

The State of Our Nation

Good Morning!  I need to take a break from the series dealing with tribulation and wrath for a couple of weeks to talk about the current state of our nation -- spiritually, politically and economically -- and talk about the crisis we all face.  I'll get back to our other series before too long.

A portion of what I'm about to share has been shared before in several different Coffee Breaks, but said a bit differently.

There isn’t a one of us that would disagree with the premise that our entire body of law, and our nation is built upon the foundation of the Constitution of the United States.   “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

So reads the Preamble to the Constitution.  From there we launch into the specifics of that foundation to the laws our founding fathers saw fit to incorporate as the starting place from which to build a cohesive nation.

When I ran for Congress back in 2004, I made certain that folks understood I was running as a Constitutional conservative.  What I meant by that stance was that I believe in not just limited government, but small government – government that does not intrude upon the fundamental rights of its citizens, government that isn’t in the handout business, but provides a hand to help its citizens make a life for themselves and using some initiative to prosper according to their individual skills and gifts.

Although I'm still registered as a Republican it seems to me that many of the party leaders have abandoned the fundamentals upon which the party was founded, becoming pretty self-serving in the process.  I'm not a Libertarian simply because the Libertarian platform goes too far in ignoring the spiritual foundations of our nation and treats those foundations as an intrusion into our Constitutional liberties.  I'm not a Democrat because the Democratic party has long since left middle America and become the party of deviants, aberrants and promoters of everything abhorrent to me -- first as a Christian, and secondly as one who espouses the core of how this nation was founded and established.

The purpose of my discussion today, however, is not to rehash a political campaign, nor is it to get into the basics of the Constitution of the United States, nor is it to debate our laws.  I believe that our Constitution was founded upon a Law that undergirds our entire society, and indeed, separates the United States from every other nation in the world.

Now, in case you are thinking I’m going to say The Ten Commandments, you’re wrong.  The Ten Commandments certainly formed a fundamental core of the way in which our laws were written, but what I’m talking about goes way beyond that.

Let me begin with a portion of the Mayflower Compact – an agreement entered into by the folks who fled England in order to provide a way of life and a freedom they could not obtain there.  (As an aside, Della can trace her family’s beginnings in this country to one of those original families aboard the Mayflower.)

IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN. We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c. Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, (my emphasis) and the Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first Colony in the northern Parts of Virginia; Do by these Presents, solemnly and mutually, in the Presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid…….”

While these settlers certainly had a reverence for King James, and England as a whole, they sought something missing in their native land: the freedom to worship God, and an opportunity to advance their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ with all of the basic fundamentals that make Christianity what it is.  They looked to the establishing of a colony away from the King, away from England, and away from the Church of England with its rigidity in order that there might be freedom to grow spiritually.

Looking at each of the individual charters of the thirteen original colonies, it becomes clear that – without exception – the freedom to worship God and serve the Lord Jesus Christ was their underlying motivation.

One of the arguments that I’ve engaged in with some folks during the past few months has been over the recurrence of the phrase, “the Christian religion,” in the body of many of our founding fathers’ documents.  The argument raised of course is predicated on Thomas Jefferson’s statement to a Baptist preacher concerning “a wall of separation between church and state.”  What most folks miss – and what most leftists and liberals want to argue over – is that Christianity is not a religion.  It is not a dogma.  It is not some kind of body of theological ideas.

Christianity – true Christianity – as our founding fathers saw it, was a deep reverence for, and worship of, the Lord Jesus Christ.  Folks could have differences of understanding over some things and be a part of different church groups or organizations, but the common denominator that bound our founding fathers together was the worship of the Lord Jesus Christ.  They defined the differences that separated them as “religion,” but not the faith.

Are you understanding what I’m getting at?  Some have supposed that there were deep differences that divided our forefathers, that the division was religious in nature, and that the colonies were established in order to ensure that the Baptists stayed to themselves, the Quakers stayed to themselves, the Anglicans stayed to themselves, etc., etc.  Not true! 

As I have often commented to some of my friends – perhaps rhetorically – I am a very strong-willed and outspoken person.  (Of course, you’d have never guessed, huhh?)  As a minister of the Gospel, and a preacher, I can be verrry strong in some of the statements that I make.  Those remarks are not made in anger, nor am I trying to sell some nutty doctrine.  I do have strong convictions – convictions that are often based in years of personal experience.  That doesn’t mean that I can’t be wrong, or that the Lord doesn’t still have to beat me upside the head with a 2X4 once in awhile to get my attention.  He does, and I change.  (OK.  No smart alec remarks from the peanut gallery!)

Many of those early forefathers were preachers.  William Penn, for example, was a Quaker.  Just three weeks after his arrival (in 1682) in the colony that would eventually bear his name, he called for an election of representatives to a provincial assembly.  Among Penn’s first laws passed by this assembly were guarantees protecting the freedom of conscience.  These laws permitted Christians who were considered heretics in the Old World to escape their persecutions for worshiping God “differently” than some of their brethren.

Roger Williams was from the Antinomians – a sect that eventually became the first group of Baptists.  A brilliant apologist for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Williams was influenced by the Reformation and Martin Luther’s theses on faith.  Determined to ensure that the colonists had the freedom to worship God, he labored long and hard to obtain a charter for the new colony of Rhode Island and to establish laws and statutes that would provide the colonists the right and freedom to worship the Lord as they saw fit.

Massachusetts (despite its present liberalism and the current attacks by some of its judges on the institution of marriage) had John Winthrop (its first governor) and John Eliot.  Winthrop was so convinced that God had a sovereign purpose for this new land that while on board the Arabella, sailing for America, he wrote “A Model of Christian Charity,” in which he outlined the purposes of God for New England.  He had a vision and what he felt was a deep understanding of God’s purposes for the new colony.

John Eliot, an ordained Anglican, but “nonconformist” minister, settled into this newly developing colony to translate the Bible into the Indian tongue of the local tribes, and evangelized the natives to such a degree that the Massachusetts Parliament established, incorporated, and provided the necessary financing to support “The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England.”

Then, of course, you have the Moravians who settled North Carolina, and the Puritans who settled Connecticut. 

I don’t want this to turn into a history lesson, but it is important to see that these original colonists all shared a common goal, and there was a common thread in their objectives: the absolute right to worship the Lord Jesus Christ as they saw fit without interference from government.  To the contrary, as colonial governments formed and charters were established, the common purpose in each charter was to guarantee that – even if the local governments provided the funding to accomplish it – the Gospel would be propagated, America, the “New Land” would be evangelized, and faith in the Lord God would be spread throughout the new nation.

John Winthrop even took it farther by stating clearly that this new land was established as "a modell of Christian charity," to characterize the colonists' endeavor as part of a special pact with God to create a holy community.  He encouraged the colonists to "bear one another's burdens", and to view themselves as a "Company of Christ, bound together by Love."  He told the colonists to be stricter in their religious conformance than even the Church of England, and to view as their objective the establishment of a model state. If they did so, God would "make us a prayse and glory, that man shall say of succeeding plantacions: the lord make it like that of New England."                                                                                                                                                   

It was this setting under which our Constitutional founders came together to establish a single, unifying document which would combine the intentions of the individual colonial charters and create a single new nation out of those thirteen colonies.

Although much has been made of Thomas Jefferson’s letter with the reference to the “wall of separation,” few people seem to remember that it was Jefferson who, in 1786, used the charter for the Virginia colony to draft a bill establishing guarantees for the freedom of worshiping God, and setting the stage for the First Amendment to the now-developing Constitution of the United States.

Fewer still remember that when Jefferson became President in 1800, he called for preachers from various churches to hold worship services in the House of Representatives on a weekly basis.  His successors followed suit for many years thereafter.

Somewhere in my document archives is a copy of a vision that George Washington had for this country.  The vision might be called by some “apocalyptic,” but he had an experience in which the Lord allowed him to see some of the very events that have unfolded in this country during the past few years.  He carefully wrote the details of that vision and expressed both his concern and his prayer that God would spare this nation the horrors he was seeing.

The overwhelming majority of our founding fathers shared a common goal.  James Madison, John Jay and Alexander Hamilton wrote and published their discussions abroad in what we now have compiled as The Federalist Papers.  Though these discussions take on just about every aspect of constitutional law, the same common goal underlies those discussions.

It was Noah Webster, however, who summarized our Constitution and all that went into its writing when, in 1833, he wrote, “The religion which has introduced civil liberty, is the religion of Christ and his apostles ... This is genuine Christianity, and to this we owe our free constitutions and government ... the moral principles and precepts contained in the Scripture ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws." (emphasis mine)

So where does this lead us in this modern age of doubt, skepticism, atheism, humanistic teaching and rampant attempts to rewrite our Constitution and Laws so as to eliminate all reference to Jesus Christ, to God Almighty, and/or the prevention of anything that could by the remotest stretch of the imagination be termed “government sponsorship of religion?”

The truth is that our spiritual underpinnings are the entire reason for our existence as a nation.  Were it not for the prayer that bathed our beginnings, were it not for the faith expressed by our founders, were it not for the absolute trust in God and the declared intentions to build a nation in which the Lord Jesus Christ would be honored above all else, it is fair to say that we would not exist today as a people.

The Psalmist David wrote, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, and the people He hath chosen for an inheritance.”  (Psalm 33:12)

That said, the United States faces a crisis at the moment – a crisis of faith, a crisis of trust in the Lord.  We have allowed authority to folks who hate God with a purple passion.  They have taken advantage of that authority to create laws and statutes that are unconstitutional, that rip away at the very fabric of our existence.  We have tolerated – in the name of freedom and liberty – leaders who, with every fiber of their existence, hate the spiritual underpinnings that became the foundation of our nation.  We have permitted organizations to exist -- such as the ACLU -- and even provided funding for them, that are systematically destroying the liberties our forefathers shed their blood to guarantee.

We have permitted our educators to stand in our nation’s classrooms for decades and undermine our spiritual heritage, attempt to rewrite and revise our nation’s history, defame and slander many of our founding fathers with false accusation and/or innuendo, and destroy the trust of our youth in the very fabric of our constitution.  We have allowed liars to stand in public and – in the name of constitutionally guaranteed right to free speech – use that freedom to attack any elected leaders who express their faith and trust in God.

Four years ago we elected a Muslim for our President, a man who has no compunction about lying and pretending to be a Christian, and all the while demonstrating through his actions, his hatred and disdain of the God we know, love and serve, and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.  Now we as a nation are paying the price for that insanity.  We are swimming in a sea of debt, spending pretend money to finance social programs that are supposed to be the purview of the body of Christ -- not government -- and ripping away at the social fabric of our nation by encouraging the murder of the unborn and approving deviant alliances between same sex partners while pretending that this is an acceptable "alternative lifestyle' to which we can append and ascribe marriage.

There are spiritual laws that are higher than that of our Constitution.  There are laws which our forefathers obeyed and utilized as they set our foundations in place which, if praying Christians and believers today do not get a hold of, will bring this nation down.  We will fail as every other nation in history if we lose sight of those laws.

If those who have the opportunity do not seize this time to reverse the laws and trends that have ripped away our liberties to speak out publicly in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and honor God, America is headed for the kind of woes we have seen other nations suffer.

The right to free speech in this nation is not a guarantee of anarchy.  Contrary to the opinions of some, free speech is not a right to treasonous proclamations by those in public leadership.  The right to worship God, to praise His name and honor him by public leaders is not some constitutionally-prohibited breach of an imagined “wall of separation.”

If we continue to tolerate the observance of this mythical wall, we will most assuredly – in less than a decade – see the end of the American dream our founding fathers sought to build.  Come on people!  Stand up and be counted!  Get your act together.  Challenge the God-haters with their agenda.  No matter what it costs you personally, get involved in the process to reverse the disintegration of our spiritual fabric.

Whewww…….  OK.  Got a bit preachy, there!  Can’t help it, though.  Every bone, every cell, every corpuscle in my being says, “NO!  YOU WILL NOT!!” to those who seek to remove our liberties.

In the coming days or weeks, I hope to be discussing some of the particular ways in which we can bring these trends to a halt – ways that every one of us have at our disposal.  In the meantime, have a good and thoughtful day.  Meditate on these things.

Most of all, be blessed today.  Be blessed in the city, blessed in the field, blessed coming in and blessed going out.

Blessings on you!

Regner

Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES

709 South 7^th Street
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
(509) 515-0133

All Coffee Break articles are copyright by Regner A. Capener, but authorization for reprinting, reposting, copying or re-use, in whole or in part, is granted – provided proper attribution and this notice are included intact.  Older Coffee Break archives are temporarily available at http://regnersrangers.multiply.com/journal/ and are being slowly added at http://www.AnotherCoffeeBreak.com.  Coffee Break articles are normally published weekly.

If you would like to have these articles arrive each morning in your email, please send a blank email to: Subscribe@AnotherCoffeeBreak.com.  To unsubscribe, send a blank email to Unsubscribe@AnotherCoffeeBreak.com.

CAPENER MINISTRIES is a tax-exempt church ministry. Should you desire to participate and covenant with us as partners in this ministry, please contact us at either of the above email or physical addresses, or visit http://www.RiverWorshipCenter.org.