I have been teaching the older children the last two weeks about David and Saul and Solomon.  We watched a really good movie called, “David” and it was very long so I had to show it in two parts.  They loved it so much that they were bugging me and begging me to hurry up and play the second half.  They really understand how David thought and how much like God he was concerning forgiveness and never harboring bitterness in heart.  Even today in church, one of the boys gave a testimony about how what he had learned these last two weeks has changed his way of thinking concerning God’s passion for us and His amazing forgiveness.  I think the most amazing line in the movie that came from David’s lips was, “The covenant between a father and a son can never be broken”.  He said this concerning his son Absalom.    Although these very words are not in the Bible, I believe they were in David’s heart of hearts.  These are teachings I pray will stick with these young people, especially when the path gets hard.

This being the week of the US Presidential elections I know there are many who are not happy and many who are.  I want to remind those who aren’t about one of the most amazing times in history, other than the resurrection of Jesus of course.

In the early 1700’s England was in a terrible state.  This era was known as the “Gin Age” because gin was being distilled in one of every four homes.  Twenty five percent of the country was manufacturing alcohol!  Even Parliament had to adjourn frequently because the members were too intoxicated to think much less work concerning the affairs of the state.  Nearly 75% of children died before reaching their fifth birthday.  Can you imagine 3 out of every 4 children never seeing their fifth birthdays?  Parents would even sell their babies and children as slave labor just to buy more alcohol.  Some parents would maim and abuse their children and send them to the streets in the hopes they would get more money that way when they went begging.  This was a nation that had gone as low as it could go, where even the leader of the country was powerless.

Then two brothers, Charles and John Wesley, changed the face of a nation.  They refused to give in to unrighteousness.  For five decades John never quit traveling the highways and byways to encourage people and reform sinners and disciple a nation back to righteousness.  The great Methodist Church movement and so much more grew out of this amazing revival.  All of this in the midst of a drunken country, they refused to quit.  I want to encourage every one of us to keep fighting the good fight of faith.  Let us not quit or grow weary in walking in love and righteousness.  We can’t keep relying on the “right man” to be put in to office to lead us.  Jesus’ government has no end.  We just need to keep following His orders and letting Him lead us and be a light to the ones who are in darkness, no matter what this darkness looks like in this day and age.