From Remembrance — A New Great Awakening for America — To Restoration!
At the Crossroads for Our Grand Finale, through Seven Golden Arches to a National Restoration
This Weekend on Valley Radio, Dec. 28-29
Words of Wisdom
“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.” (Ps. 33:12)
“Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.” (Prov. 14:34)
“When the righteous rule, the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule, the people mourn.” Prov. 29:2)
“By the blessing of the upright, a city is exalted, but by the mouth of the wicked it is overthrown.” (Prov. 11:11)
“The government is downstream from the culture, from the church, from ‘We the People’, and from God. When any one of those streams becomes polluted, our government and our nation become corrupted as well!” (Rakazzi)
“The Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land of Israel because there is no truth or knowledge of God among them, and the land is in mourning. They have sown the wind and they shall reap the whirlwind because they have forgotten their Maker.” (Hosea 4:1,2,3,6 and 8:7,14.)
“If my people who are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray, and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and forgive their sin, and heal their land.” (II Chron. 7:14).
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From a Slough of Despond to a New Hope for America
In recent years, and especially during the years of the Clinton, Obama, and Biden administrations, we witnessed an accelerated departure from our God-given, Judeo-Christian heritage in favor of a more secular state that rejects God as well as well as the constitutional principles on which America was founded.
As a part of that, we have too often been forced to bow down before a Supreme Court and other High Level government leaders who appear to believe that they know better than God and His Word about what is Right and what is Wrong. Just as quoted above from Hosea, “They have forgotten their Maker.”
For example, in 1962 and 1963, the Supreme Court ruled that school sponsored Prayer and Bible reading could no longer be permitted in our public schools, despite the First Amendment of our Constitution which states that Congress shall make no law that prohibits freedom of speech or the free exercise of religion.
Then in 1973, the Court decided that God’s incredible design for Life could be ignored in the Roe v. Wade case to legalize abortion, a decision that was then aggressively promoted during the above named administrations.
And again, in 2015, the Court decreed that God’s beautiful design for Marriage between only one man and one woman could be “expanded” as in the case of Obergefell v. Hodges, to include same-sex “marriages”. That too was then aggressively promoted during the Obama and Biden administrations.
More generally, we have also seen the growth of Big Government to become our new Provider “from whom all blessings flow” and to which we are now beholden for all of our rights – displacing our Creator.
As a result, we have mortgaged the future of our children to a national debt that is now over $36 trillion – more than $79,000 per citizen — so that we can live in the styles to which we have become accustomed.
Taken together, all of this reflects a growing trend in America toward what the people of Israel experienced when “There was no king in Israel, and every man did what was right in his own eyes.” (Judges 21:25)
Against that background, and like the people of Israel referred to above in Proverbs and in Hosea, we too are in mourning. Therefore, it is tempting for us to slide, like John Bunyan’s Christian, into a Slough of Despair and Despond.
We cannot let that happen, but what can we do? Where is our hope and our vision for the future?
The Seven Golden Arches: A New Vision for America
That is our challenge, and our original Crossroads radio team will again this weekend, in our final Crossroads program, reaffirm our vision for a new Great Awakening in America that is aimed at reversing the troubling trends described above. It also complements the series of programs we recently aired from Rita Peter’s (formerly Dunaway) book entitled Restoring America’s Soul.
This vision carries us through Seven Golden Arches, beginning with Remembrance and then on to our final destination — a National Restoration and a Golden Gate of Rejoicing, just as Nehemiah did in rebuilding the broken down walls of Jerusalem that we reviewed in a recent Crossroads program.
Although we have seen a dramatic reversal of some of these tragic policies under former President Trump in his first term of office, and in ways that gave us fresh hope, one thing remains very, very clear. We cannot have enduring political Reform unless and until we have a new Great Awakening and spiritual Revival in America.
It won’t be easy but, with willing hands, obedient hearts, and the help of Almighty God, it can be done, as described below with periodic references to Scripture for background.
Arch No. 1 — Remembrance: We must know where we came from in order to know who we are and where we are going. To be clear, we have a rich Judeo-Christian heritage in America going back to the Pilgrims and Puritans and continuing on to the Founding Fathers. Therefore, like the children of Israel in the Old Testament, we must keep that flame of faith and freedom alive. (Deut. 8 and Ps. 105)
Arch No. 2 — Repentance: As the children of Israel did so often (Ps. 106), we too have disobeyed God in many ways. So, like them, we too must humble ourselves, pray, seek His face, and turn from our wicked ways. Only then will God hear our prayers, forgive our sins, and heal our land. (See II Chron. 7:14 cited above)
Arch No. 3 — Revival: Just as the two Great Awakenings in the 18th and 19th centuries were spiritual events that stirred Americans to throw off the chains of British tyranny and the shackles of slavery, so we too must have a spiritual revival and a new Third Great Awakening that turns back the many evil trends of our new “Woke” culture and returns us to our Godly heritage. (“Woke” can be understood to mean “Willfully Overlooking Known Evil”.
Arch No. 4 — Righteousness: The Bible contains 515 references to “righteous” or “righteousness”, including those cited above from Proverbs. That means a complete transformation from the current spiritual and moral declines in our culture to a complete surrender to God as we work for a rebirth of Righteousness in America.
Arch No. 5 – Resist and Rebuke: With hearts revived and on fire with righteousness, a confrontation with evil is inevitable. And just as the prophets of old resisted evil kings, and as our Founding Fathers stood up against tyranny, so we too must now stand up and speak out against the evils in our culture, shining among them as sons of God and lights to the world, just as Martin Luther King, Jr. did when he spoke out so effectively against slavery. (Phil. 2:15)
Arch No. 6 — Reform and Rebuild: Also like Nehemiah when he worked to repair the broken-down walls of Jerusalem in only 52 days, and as we reported in a recent Crossroads program, so we too must now work to restore America to its Biblical roots and foundations as “One Nation under God”, and promote again the values of Life, Faith, Family, and Freedom in our culture. To quote Nehemiah, “Let us rise up and rebuild our broken down walls!”(Neh. 2-17,18)
Arch No. 7 — Restoration: As George Washington emphasized in his Farewell Address, religion and morality are indispensable supports for our political prosperity. So, on those two great pillars, we too can reclaim and restore our early settlers’ vision of America as a shining “City on a Hill” that cannot be hid. (Mt. 5:14)
The Golden Gate: Rejoice! Once we have passed through these seven Golden Arches, we too can praise God for all He has done, reflecting the words on top of the Washington Monument: “Laus Deo” or “Praise be to God”. And then, again like the people of Israel after they had rebuilt the broken-down walls of Jerusalem, we too can celebrate with a joy that can be heard around the world! (Neh. 12:43)
Crossroads: Where Faith and Culture Meet
To that end, please join our original Crossroads team of Rita Peters, Pastor John Sloop, and me as we gather together again this weekend on one of the following Valley radio stations: WBTX (1470 AM and 102.1 FM) on Saturday at 4:00 p.m. and again on Sunday at 7:30 a.m., followed by WSVA (550 AM and 92.1 FM) at 8:30, and ESPN (1360 AM) and 106.9 FM) at 9:00.
You can also listen online by clicking on the appropriate Crossroad’s link on our home page of our website to find the program of your choice at www.valleyfamilyforum.org.
Crossroads has been almost entirely listener supported, and we are so grateful for your prayers, your encouragement, and your generous financial support. However, we also want to thank our generous business and church sponsors at Blue Ridge Chimney Services; Blessings Christian Bookstore; Sonshine Ministries with WBTX Christian Radio; Wishing Well Florists and Travel Services, and our good friends at New Beginnings Church and Garber’s Church of the Brethren in Harrisonburg.
Thank you all, from Dean, on behalf of the Crossroads Team.
Crossroads: Breaking News for The End of an Era
And now for the news. It is indeed with sadness that we must announce that we have reached the end of our Crossroads era. Advancing age, declining health, and other new commitments for some of us, we are compelled to leave the Crossroads stage. Therefore, this weekend’s program features the final page of our Crossroads programs that go back for nearly 10 years.
Nevertheless, I sincerely hope you will tune in to this final program on one of the usual stations listed above. It is a very special program, featuring our original on-air team of Rita Peters (formerly Dunaway) Pastor John Sloop, and myself, with the usual off-air help from my wife Janet, from our production engineer, Robby Meadows, and from our Website coordinator, Eugene Bare. This final program presents a vision for America that calls on all of us to help restore America’s soul, just as we reviewed on our programs from Rita’s recent book by that title, Restoring America’s Soul.
Therefore, just for review, and also for bringing it all together, I have listed below the vision and key purposes that brought our original team together for the first time some 10 years ago to launch these Crossroads programs. So even though we are now compelled to close the door on Crossroads itself, that original vision remains alive and well, and we hope that all of us can continue our walk together through these Seven Golden Arches for our National Restoration.
So now, once again, from our original Crossroads Team, we want to thank you so much for your support throughout these Crossroads years. We couldn’t have done it without you, and we now wish for you a wonderful Christmas celebration and God’s richest blessing on you and your family for a prosperous New Year in every possible way. In closing, the five purposes that have guided the Crossroads Team in the past, follow below:
The Five Key Purposes for Crossroads
- To inform and to mobilize those who share our concerns about the direction of our country, and who would like to help advance Life, Faith, Family, and Freedom in our culture and in the public square;
- To help ignite another Great Awakening that is built on the Judeo-Christian values and Constitutional principles on which America was founded and on which it has prospered for the past 400 years;
- To help identify and support godly leaders who are committed to renewing our Godly Heritage and who continue to believe in America as a shining “City on a Hill”and as “One Nation Under God”;
- To reach out to those in the listening audience who may be either disinterested or who may even hold contrary views, especially in the secular audience; and perhaps most importantly also in our churches;
- To encourage our listeners to turn our hearts toward God in full surrender and obedience to His will and to His purpose for our lives – which would help accomplish everything described above.
So once again, and in closing, from Dean and on behalf of the Crossroads team, thank you all so muchfor your support, with our best wishes for a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Yes, Working and Walking Together, We Can Make a Difference, for God and Country!