The Sword Of The Lord ~ Dr. Shelton Editor ~ March 20, 2024

Judges 7:20 King James Version (KJV)
And the three companies blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers, and held the lamps in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands to blow withal: and they cried, The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon.

An Independent Christian Publication, Standing for the Verbal Inspiration of the Bible, the Deity of Christ, His Blood Atonement, Salvation by Faith, New Testament Soul Winning and the Premillennial Return of Christ; Opposing Modernism (Liberalism), Worldliness and Formalism.

The Amen Corner

“When the churches drift into formalism, ritualism, liberalism, Calvinism, etc., the world will continue its drift toward Hell unwary and unimpeded.”

“The darkest spot on Earth is the place where the light of the Gospel is not shining.”

“Down beneath the surface of the sea there is a part that is never stirred, and the peace of God is that eternal calm which, like a cushion of the sea, lies far too deep down to be reached by any external trouble and disturbance; and he who enters into the presence of God becomes partaker of that undisturbed and undisturbable calm.” -A. T. Pierson

“An infinite God can give all of Himself to each of His children. He does not distribute Himself that each may have a part, but to each one, He gives all of Himself as fully as if there were no others.” -A. W. Tozer

“The emergency against which I shall most carefully provide is failure.” -David Livingstone

“After Christ went up to Heaven, the Holy Spirit came down, and the disciples of Christ went out ‘every where preaching the word’ (Acts 8:4).”

“Do not have your concert first and then tune your instrument afterward. Begin the day with the Word of God and prayer, and get first of all into harmony with Him.” -Hudson Taylor

“When I get to Heaven, I shall see three wonders there. The first wonder will be to see many people there whom I did not expect to see. The second wonder will be to miss many people whom I did expect to see. And the third and greatest wonder of all will be to find myself there.” -John Newton

“There is a great craving today for a religion that shall adorn but shall not restrain, for a religion which shall be toothless and have no bite in it, for a religion that shall sanction anything we want to do. Popular Christianity is a very easy-fitting argument; it is like an old shoe that you can slip on and off without any difficulty.”

“The man who hasn’t the time to do the things that are worthwhile is probably doing some things that are not.”

“They that enter Heaven will find that they are neither unknown nor unexpected.” -J. C. Ryle

“If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me.” -Robert Murray M’Cheyne

“Moses spent 40 years thinking he was somebody; 40 years learning he was nobody; and 40 years discovering what God can do with a nobody.” -D. L. Moody

The path of the wicked …

Having trouble viewing this email? View as Webpage ‌  ‌  ‌ Earl Warren [1891-1974] was an American attorney, politician, and jurist who served as the 14th Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1953 to 1969. He was born in Los Angeles and reared in Bakersfield, CA, by Swedish and Norwegian immigrant parents.  Following graduation from Kern County High School in 1908, Warren enrolled at the University of California at Berkeley and received his B.A. degree in 1912, his J.D. degree from Berkeley School of Law in 1914, and was admitted to the California bar in 1915.  Warren, like many children of immigrants, found success not by accident but through hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, and sacrifice. Remarkably, Warren served as governor of California from 1943 to 1953.  In 1953, President Dwight ‘Ike’ Eisenhower [1890-1969] appointed Governor Warren to Chief Justice. Thus, unknowingly, began America’s experiment to determine whether culture can survive and flourish when severed from the Biblical founding by America’s Founders through the 17th and 18th centuries.  With its liberal edicts and moral abominations over a 13 year period, the Warren Court [1953-1969] distinguished itself as “the most liberal Supreme Court in history.” President Eisenhower supposedly admitted later that nominating Warren to the court was “the biggest damn-fool mistake I ever made.”  Nevertheless, Warren was appointed and confirmed by the United States Senate in 1954. Looking back on Justice Warren’s schismatic tenancy brings up the key question whether Western civilization can be governed without a set of common values and a baseline to structure and order freedom.  The American Founders didn’t think so, arguing that virtue of character is a key component of sustainable liberty. “No garment is so resplendent as that of a holy character,” as Charles Spurgeon put it.  Os Guinness [born 1941], English author and social critic, accentuates the indisputable link existing between virtue of character and freedom: “The plain fact is that no free and lasting civilization anywhere in history has so far been built on atheist foundations.  “A culture with no claims on its members – or curbs on their desires – would be a culture with no future. Freedom requires a firm refusal of what is false, what is bad, what is excessive, what is ugly and, above all, what a person is not and should never try to become. When everything is tolerable, nothing will be true; and when nothing is true, no one will be free.”1  The current debate in public education on the illusory existence of more than two genders should give parents of young children cause for concern. Dr. Bruce K. Waltke, the foremost living authority on the wisdom literature found in the Old Testament, takes the debate a step further: “The spread of homosexuality in America in less than a generation validates the danger of progressive hardening of sin.”  With Christians making the first step in the early 17th century, America’s Founders laid down the nation’s Biblically based foundation, as exemplified, among others, by the fact that all but a few of the first 123 colleges and universities were set up as distinctly Christian, by origin and purpose.2  A simple perusal of the 13 Original States Charters and Constitutions – Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Connecticut, New York, South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and Maryland – will easily prove that the Founders established, by design, a Christian nation. goo.gl/cBw4Xh  Modern America, however, is woefully morally adrift, having become unmoored from its Biblical anchors under the fateful influence of godless secularism. Through confiscation of public education, the schooling system has turned into a breeding ground and grooming hatchery of prepubescent and adolescent boys and girls, priming them for a life of unmitigated discontent and distress.  Despite public education verging on self-destruction, secular government bureaucrats remain fixed on barring spiritual values from public schools and the Ten Commandments from courthouses and government buildings. Dennis Peacocke notices an unspoken reality in the unraveling of America: “One thing is certain, virtually no one in ‘the real world’ expects Christians to be a significant contributing factor in the process [creating a counteraction to secularism].”3 American Christendom’s current model of butts in the seats, massive budgets, and multiple buildings and campuses may actually be a detriment to a Fourth Great Awakening.  Consequently, American Christendom’s next leaders will have inherited a grave situation, left untouched and unsolved by the last 2 or 3 generations of Christian leaders. In his remarkable Of God and Men, A.W. Tozer notes that “Religious leaders who continue mechanically to expound the Scriptures without regard to the current religious situation are no better than the scribes and lawyers of Jesus’ day who faithfully parroted the Law without the remotest notion of what was going on around them spiritually.”4  A collapse of culture and loss of freedom is where this leads unless God’s under-shepherds take action.  Solomon laid out in Proverbs 4:14-16 how to deal with the bane of contemporary public education: “Do not enter the path of the wicked, And do not go the way of evil men. Avoid it, do not travel on it; Turn away from it and pass on. For the wicked cannot sleep unless they do evil; And they are deprived of sleep unless they make someone stumble and fall.”  Dr. Michael V. Fox, Jewish Hebrew scholar and author of the excellent two-volume Proverbs Commentary, elaborated on Solomon’s advice: “Radaq observes that the verse [v. 14, ‘path of the wicked’] does not say ‘al telek’ – ‘go not’ – in the way of the wicked, but rather ‘al tabe’ – ‘enter not’ [or ‘come not’] – into it. ‘Entering’ [‘bw’] indicates the moment one comes into a space rather than continuous movement [‘going’] within a space. Radaq takes the line to mean that one should not join in the abominable customs and activities of the wicked.” Dr. Fox adds: “The wicked have a need to cause harm; their ‘peace of mind’ depends on it.”  American Christendom must set in motion a mass exodus from public schools if the nation is to make it through.  The formula seems clear: 1) every church in America must have a pastor, elder, deacon, or congregant running for local office in 2024, 2026, 2028 and thereafter. 2) pastors and spiritual leaders should devise a plan for a mass exodus from public education. With both of these fulfilled, a spiritual awakening lasting well into the next century might well be on the horizon.  Gideons and Rahabs are beginning to stand.  David Lane American Renewal Project 1. Os Guinness, A Free People’s Suicide: Sustainable Freedom and the American Future; 2012. 2. David R. Reagan, America’s Suicide; Lamb & Lion Ministries, 2022. 3. Dennis Peacocke, On The Destiny of Nations: Resolving Our Economic Crisis; 2012. 4. A.W. Tozer, Of God and Men: Cultivating the Divine/Human Relationship; 1960.

American Renewal Project | 156 Rainbow Street, #5626, Livingston, TX 77399

The Sword Of The Lord ~ Dr. Shelton Editor ~ May 19, 2023

Judges 7:20 King James Version (KJV)
And the three companies blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers, and held the lamps in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands to blow withal: and they cried, The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon.

An Independent Christian Publication, Standing for the Verbal Inspiration of the Bible, the Deity of Christ, His Blood Atonement, Salvation by Faith, New Testament Soul Winning and the Premillennial Return of Christ; Opposing Modernism (Liberalism), Worldliness and Formalism.

The Amen Corner

As the excellence of steel is strength and the excellence of art is beauty, so the excellence of mankind is moral character. -A. W. Tozer

Tithe before you go on vacation. Don’t run the risk of running so short you shortchange God.

Do all the good you can, By all the means you can, In all the ways you can, In all the places you can, At all the times you can, To all the people you can, As long as ever you can. -John Wesley

There is no difference between being saved and “really saved.” There is no such thing as degrees in salvation. No one is more saved than another. Those who are trusting Jesus Christ are saved and they have everlasting life. And those who are not trusting Him are not saved, “but the wrath of God abideth on” them (John 3:36). -Curtis Hutson

You may be saved and faithfully serving God, but that doesn’t exempt you from the turmoil of troubles of living in this old world where the Devil roams the earth like a roaring lion. Be alert to his presence and be aggressive to oppose him lest he rend you to pieces. -Shelton Smith

You can never cultivate self into anything but self. -D. L. Moody

Evangelism is at this moment the insistent need of the churches. As not before in many decades the cause of evangelism languishes. With a strange unanimity conservatives and critics alike are waking to this dire condition of things – the waning of the evangelistic spirit. -W. B. Riley

Out of the will of God there is no such thing as success. -Christian Chronicle

“Mr. Sunday, the church is full of hypocrites,” you say. So is Hell; and if you don’t want to go to Hell and live with that bunch forever, come into the churches where you won’t have to associate with them very long. There are no hypocrites in Heaven. -Billy Sunday

People have preached the Bible’s funeral ten thousand times, but they have never gotten it buried. Before they can get it into the grave, it is up and out again, carrying its message of hope, cheer and salvation to the uttermost parts of the earth. -Jarrette Aycock

Footprints in the sands of time were not made sitting down.

The Ten Commandments, which are the foundation of all good law – Roman law, German law, English law, American law – are the best foundation upon which to build character. -T. DeWitt Talmage

The Sword Of The Lord ~ Dr. Shelton Editor ~ June 10, 2022

Judges 7:20 King James Version (KJV)
And the three companies blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers, and held the lamps in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands to blow withal: and they cried, The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon.

An Independent Christian Publication, Standing for the Verbal Inspiration of the Bible, the Deity of Christ, His Blood Atonement, Salvation by Faith, New Testament Soul Winning and the Premillennial Return of Christ; Opposing Modernism (Liberalism), Worldliness and Formalism.

The Amen Corner

If we are to have real faith, we must study the Word of God and discover what is promised. Then, we must simply believe the promises of God. Trying to believe something that you want to believe is not faith. Believing what God says in His Word is faith. -Reuben A. Torrey

What I believe about God is the most important thing about me. -A. W. Tozer

Some people have the power to help but not the willingness. Others have the willingness but not the power. God has both. -Lee Roberson

If there is one thing which pierces the Saviour’s heart with unutterable grief, it is not the world’s iniquity but the church’s indifference. -F. B. Meyer

Some missionaries bound for Africa were laughed at by the boat captain. “You’ll only die over there,” he said. But one of the missionaries replied, “Captain, we died before we started.” -Vance Havner

When someone asked William Booth his great secret of happiness, he replied, “I never say no to the Lord.”

If you have no joy in your religion, there’s a leak in your Christianity somewhere. -Billy Sunday

Education is useless without the Bible. The Bible was America’s basic textbook in all fields. -Noah Webster

If you preach what is new, it won’t be true. If you preach what is true, it won’t be new. -Charles Spurgeon

Never fear to suffer; but, oh, fear to sin! If you must choose between them, prefer the greatest suffering to the smallest sin. -Guthrie

I was one day walking along a street in Springfield holding the hands of my two boys who were crying lustily. “What’s the matter with the boys, Abe?” asked a neighbor. I replied, “The matter with them is the matter with the world: one has a nut and the other wants it.” -Abraham Lincoln

Just as good literature has the power to uplift, ennoble and transform character, so also does bad literature have the power to corrupt, drag down and destroy character.

The assassin of Lord Russell said that the reading of one bad book made him a criminal and a murderer. John Angell James, one of England’s noblest Christians, said, when an old man, that he had never fully recovered from the ill effects of fifteen minutes’ reading of a bad pamphlet when he was a boy!

-George W. Truett

One of the hardest things about falling is getting back up. One of the most important things about falling is getting back up! -Dennis Leatherman

The Sword Of The Lord ~ Dr. Shelton Editor ~ August 20, 2021

Judges 7:20 King James Version (KJV)
And the three companies blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers, and held the lamps in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands to blow withal: and they cried, The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon.

An Independent Christian Publication, Standing for the Verbal Inspiration of the Bible, the Deity of Christ, His Blood Atonement, Salvation by Faith, New Testament Soul Winning and the Premillennial Return of Christ; Opposing Modernism (Liberalism), Worldliness and Formalism.

The Amen Corner

It is a truth that no matter how one comes into the world, he may live gloriously and leave behind him both an honorable and an imperishable name. -W. B. Riley

Some people are like wheelbarrows, useful only when pushed, and very easily upset. -Vance Havner

As the excellence of steel is strength and the excellence of art is beauty, so the excellence of mankind is moral character. -A. W. Tozer

Lots of people underestimate God’s power. They have Him hobbled and handcuffed. He’s the same God, though, that made the world; lifted Jesus Christ from the dead; kept Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego from burning in the fiery furnace; kept the lions from eating Daniel; and He can do just as much now as He could then. -Billy Sunday

It has been my earnest conviction that when the preacher in the pulpit is silent on critical matters, the country goes awry. The man of God should be everywhere encouraged to raise his voice. The conviction and the courage to make a stand even on everyday matters, but especially on vital concerns, are often missing today. -Dr. Shelton Smith

The strength of a country is the strength of its religious convictions. -Calvin Coolidge

I will place no value on anything I have or may possess except in relation to the kingdom of Christ. -David Livingstone

There are no songs like the songs of the Scriptures, no orations like the orations of the prophets. -John Milton

The Bible is the best Book that ever was or ever will be in the world. -Charles Dickens

It is not the fact that a man has riches which keeps him from the kingdom of Heaven, but the fact that the riches have him. -David Gaird

When you take up this holy Book and read about redemption, salvation, God’s love, the romance of creation and a thousand other mysteries and glories of the world to come and it is dry to you – brother, you have been doing something you ought not to do! -Dr. John R. Rice

Just as one digit is valuable in the multiplication table and one letter in the alphabet, far more valuable is just one soul in God’s sight. -R. G. Lee

Those who give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

The Sword Of The Lord ~ Dr. Shelton Editor ~ July 23, 2021

Judges 7:20 King James Version (KJV)
And the three companies blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers, and held the lamps in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands to blow withal: and they cried, The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon.

An Independent Christian Publication, Standing for the Verbal Inspiration of the Bible, the Deity of Christ, His Blood Atonement, Salvation by Faith, New Testament Soul Winning and the Premillennial Return of Christ; Opposing Modernism (Liberalism), Worldliness and Formalism.

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The Amen Corner

God’s truth has never been popular. -A. W. Tozer

It has pleased the Lord to teach me the truth that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day is to have my soul happy in the Lord and to know my spiritual life might be nourished. -George Muller

Here’s the latest news from Moscow. Someone just broke into the Kremlin and stole their next year’s election results. -Ronald Reagan

You can better understand the Bible if you personally know the Author.

Have you ever seen anyone who spent a lot of time making other people miserable but he himself was happy?

If you live every day as if it were your last, do every job as if you were the boss, drive as if all other vehicles were police cars and treat everybody else as if he were you, don’t you think we would all be better for it? -Phoenix Flame

Woe unto that man who conceals the Light when men are stumbling in the darkness! Woe unto him who keeps back the Bread of Life in the season of famine! -C. H. Spurgeon

God’s people should be baptized because God commanded it. -Dr. John R. Rice

After many painful trials, which none can know but those who are taught to relinquish a system in which they had been educated, I settled down in the full persuasion that the immersion of a professing believer in Christ is the only Christian baptism. -Adoniram Judson

Some people know how to live everyone’s life but their own.

When a little success turns a man’s head, it invariably causes pain in the neck to other people.

The Sword Of The Lord ~ Dr. Shelton Editor ~ May 14, 2021

Judges 7:20 King James Version (KJV)
And the three companies blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers, and held the lamps in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands to blow withal: and they cried, The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon.

An Independent Christian Publication, Standing for the Verbal Inspiration of the Bible, the Deity of Christ, His Blood Atonement, Salvation by Faith, New Testament Soul Winning and the Premillennial Return of Christ; Opposing Modernism (Liberalism), Worldliness and Formalism.

The Amen Corner

The word received in the power of the Holy Spirit produces the new birth, thus giving everlasting life. This is the present possession of all who put their trust in the Lord Jesus. -Dr. H. A. Ironside

“Safety first” is a good slogan on a busy street corner and in the midst of moving machinery; but it is a cowardly slogan in relation to the preservation of the Christian faith and in obedience to Christ for a worldwide, missionary, soulwinning program.

The modern scientist has lost God amid the wonders of His world; we Christians are in real danger of losing God amid the wonders of His Word. -A. W. Tozer

I am of the opinion that the chief danger which confronts us will be religion without the Holy Spirit, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, politics without God, and Heaven without Hell. -General William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army

The Word of God tells us of the day when tears shall be gone forever. Until we come to that day, we move through this world in the midst of tears. -Dr. Lee Roberson

When people refuse to be governed by God, they will soon be ruled by tyrants. -William Penn

Thank God for the Bible! The atheists have bombarded it, the agnostics have ridiculed it, the infidels have blasted it, the skeptics have sought to destroy it, the Roman hierarchy denied it to their people, the modernist preachers have tried to scuttle it – in fact, all the agencies of Satan have hammered away at it. But it still stands as the imperishable, indestructible Word of the eternal God. It still changes lives, transforms homes, elevates communities, blesses nations. Thank God for the Bible! -Dale Crowley

America is running on the momentum of a godly ancestry. When that momentum goes, God help America! -Dr. J. Gresham Machen

Twice-a-month church attendance, tithing when you feel like it and “now-I-lay-me-down-to-sleep” prayers are not the ingredients of revival. -Dr. Shelton Smith