Why Thanksgiving Is So Important To The Health Of Our Country

0:00 The topics and opinions expressed in the following show are solely those of the hosts and their guests and not those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services, or products mentioned on air or on our web. No liability explicitor implied shall be extended to W four CY Radio or it's employees are affiliates. Any questions or comments should be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing W FOURCY Radio. Well, hello and welcome. This is Bill Martinez and we are live. Happy Thanksgiving to you. Great to have you with us. The day after Thanksgiving, Black Friday. I guess maybe Black Friday needs to be part of the fabric and wolf and wharf of America because after all the good eating, we need to get lots of steps in so we run from door to door and chase after all those great sales that are happening this day.

1:03 But it's still, I believe appropriate for us to pause and consider why Thanksgiving is so important to the overall health of our country. You know, for many reasons. I mean, you know, you think about it's the opening of a very special holiday season that reconnects us with God Almighty, for He is the one that we must be thankful to. That our first president, George Washington proclaimed in the first Proclamation of Thanksgiving, it was actually our first national holiday as a country, did you know. You know, I had to remind myself of that as well, that it was the first national holiday that we enjoyed. And it was our president, I believe, who was so inspired to remind us of the blessings of this great American idea. You know that started because of some pilgrims and prayers that they put out to God for something like ten twelve years that they would finally have a place where they could go and worship God. And God answered their prayer as we know.

2:09 And then fast forward from the impact of the pilgrims first coming to the United States of America, then we have the development of this new nation, the United States of America, and George Washington in that Thanksgiving Proclamation reminded us that we needed to be thankful to God, thankful to God. And as the way our calendar would work out, this starts a season, a very unique season. This one's going to be a little bit longer. It'll be about six weeks long. That leads us to God's ultimate eternal gift of salvation and that Jesus Christ came as man, as a little child to this earth.

2:53 My good friend Craig Huey is going to be joining us. He's the author, political commentator, speaker for Election Form, and publish of one of the largest Christian political newsletters in America. And he helps us remember why the season of Thanksgiving is so important to our country and our heritage. Craig Hughley, welcome to the show. Good to have you back with us. How are you, bil, It's great to be back. And I'm thankful for you your show. I'm thankful for all the listeners. That's really thankful to God for all the blessings He's given to the United States of America. Are our country, our freedoms right? And you know, there is something about that proclamation I referred to from George Washington that was so inspiring. You know, in a way, it's like classic music that will always be their classic writings, words that come out, you know, and whether you had his proclamation, the Proclamation of Thanksgiving from Abraham Lincoln, others also other presidents, important figures that reminded us of just how significant this season is and how it sets up the rest of the season of this holiday, doesn't it? It sure does, you know, in George Washington's proclamation, everyone should go and take a look at that, because it's available online to look at that. And that's at the beginning of a birth of a new nation. And you mentioned Abraham Lincoln when it looked like the United States was going to fall, when

4:26 it looked like the United States could be attacked by Europe, when he saw devastation and death all around, he went before the American people and said, this is a day of Thanksgiving. And you know what that is amazing. As we look around today, people who are are watching this right now, they may be having, you know, a new grandchild. They may have a new job, they may have a new opportunity that they're excited about. It's time for Thanksgiving. And there's people who could be watching right now where they're sick, where they've lost their business, or they can't pay their bills, or they don't know where they're going to get food for tomorrow. You've got people who have all kinds of conditions, and yet the Word of God is so powerful. In the First Thessalonians, chapter five, it says, rejoice, always, rejoice, always play without ceasing, give thanks, and why, for this is the will of God. It's God's will that we give thanks. And he starts off. It's pretty amazing. He starts off rejoicing. Yes, that rejoicing joy doesn't require circumstances. You could be in the Word. You could be you could be in China in jail because you're

5:57 a Christian and rejoice. You're not happy with circumstances, but you're rejoicing. And it says rejoice, and it says pray, and we're to be a people of prayer, and then thanksgiving, and you're giving thanks to the Almighty God because that's his will. And so I believe Thanksgiving is a unique American tradition, something that is based upon the fact that we were founded upon the principles you find in the Bible, were founded by Christians, and so you have from George Washington and Abe Lincoln and all you know, what they're doing is they're saying, go before God exactly where. But here's the thing.

6:47 It's also a lifestyle for you and me and every listener it's our lifestyle every day, that is the will of God every day for us. And it may seem impossible, but with God, all things are possible, right, and that's really what we should be doing. You know. The fact is when people see our joy, when people see that we're people of prayer, where people uh that that that that are thankful for for for little things and big things. And we have that lifestyle that's infectious, that's assign the Lord is with us, and and uh, you know, the God's love is constant, it's unconditional, and and it's a recognition of His grace and mercy exactly. Well, it truly is, Craig, the American way of life really, even though maybe it's dissipated a bit right now there's secularists that have come in and uh, maybe we've lost our sight. But this is a time you know, that happens on our calendar that provides an opportunity for us to reset. Yes, and just as you know, our first president example to us with his proclamation. And it was interesting because in the first paragraph of that proclamation he called upon all nations. Craig, I don't know if you remember that or not, but he called upon all nations to have a

8:20 day of thanksgiving, because it's not just about America, but it's the world. It is all of God's creation that should be thankful for His hand of faithfulness and good will toward men. Yeah, oh, absolutely, you know the foundation. We need to be thankful for him, for God sending his son Jesus Christ to come into this world to suffer and die on the cross for our sins and our transgressions, and then to rise again for us to be able to have a new life in our belief in Jesus Christ. We need to be thankful that we need thankful for the birth of American freedoms.

9:05 You know, this nation was the Pilgrims. Everybody heard about the Pilgrims to America escaping religious freedom, but they didn't have an understanding of how to do government or what to do. They just were a community of believers, and they set up a silly system that was basically socialism, right, the system where you know, everybody shares this and everybody's equal and everything's in common, and everything failed because it's against human natures and the way God made us. Within the first year, Craig, by the way, they found out real quick. That you got people that are just lazy, human nature being what it is. They didn't show up for work. Why they liked the idea of sharing equally when it came to receiving of the bounty, but they they didn't want to share equally when it came to the hard work of telling the soil to make that bounty. Gun barth r And what was true then is true today with people with the welfare state and handouts and what have you.

10:09 But here's what they learned. They said, hey, enough enough, we're starving. We can't feed ourselves. Let's go ahead and let every individual hold the responsibility of feeding their household. Let every individual have their own property and do their own growing and keep what they earned. They establish free enterprise. They pablished a pattern that was founded in the know the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, of allowing people to have individual god given freedom to do what they can without interference, without government on top of them. And what happened.

10:54 They had an abundance and they were able to celebrate a thanksgiving of abundance once they tried freedom. And that that that's the American legacy, exactly the whole world. George Washington knew that this would be a beacon of hope, a city on a hill for everyone to see that our rights come from the Almighty God, not government, and that when when you allow people to be free and to worship, and to to to do business and commerce and interchange of goods and services, you have the greatest economic miracle happening. And that's what America is, an economic miracle that his not only UH created wealth unimagined, not only has it raised people out of poverty throughout the world, it's provided a platform of spreading God's truth with missionaries and food and help and medicine and doctors and nurses and Christians going out in the name of Jesus loving people.

12:05 Exactly it Wash realized. He was unprecedented. There's no doubt. It's exactly. Thank you, Yes, exactly. Well, we're talking with Craig Huey, the author, political commentator, speaker for Elected Election Forum UH, and publisher one of the largest Christian political newsletters in America. Craig, as you as you're recalling here, I mean, go back to the foundation of this, I mean the golden you know, the crown of all this was freedom, yes, and our our Founding fathers, you know, embraced that, and they understood that that was a calling from God, not something that was going to come from government. These were inalienable rights life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, that that freedom came from God. And look what happened when freedom has reigned in our country. You're exactly right. Everybody wins all all boats or they rise according to and they're lifted up according to the tides when we're serving one another. And that's what freedom does. As soon as a government or an elitist power decides to come in and social engineer, it messes the whole thing up because they're out of their purview. That is not their level of authority. God has already sanctified and set up, set aside freedom for those who are called by His name. And when that happens,

13:37 everybody benefits from it because now you've got, well, in this case, in this modern era, what three hundred and forty five hundred and fifty million people acting on their own interest in their own behalf being responsible. And I say that in terms of being responsible for their own and their own families. Wow, you think of the power and natural resource that are in that situation. I mean, we saw a clear and I saw this clearly as it was starting to happen. You know, when we went, if I can just you know, be a little political here. After eight years with Barack Obama, you know, the labor force of America was squashed. It was frustrated, and I kept saying, they need to have they need to have an outlet. God said for us to be fruitful and multiply. That is consistent with who we are and how we designed us. If you do anything to interfere with that, it is not good for all concerned. And so here it was. The middle class was pulverized. Jobs were basically eliminated in massive numbers. And then you get then you get Donald Trump who comes in and says, look at set the captives free, let everybody go to work, be happy. And you know, America, I see. This is what blows me away, is that eight years of misery under the previous regime, you get four years. You get a forward thinking leader who believes

15:09 in the Bible and he's following godly principles. The people are rejoicing. They're not groaning as they were eight years previously. They were rejoicing but somehow something happened because come twenty twenty, an election time. I guess the people became convinced that being happy and winning was evil, that that wasn't good, and that we needed to get back into captivity. And here we are. I think what you have here is a clash world views. Yes, and this is really important. Understand that socialism and Marxism Karl Marks, the founder of communism, that religion is the opiate of the people. They've always had a world view that they've got to stop Christianity, which which which emphasizes individual freedom, not the collective, not the power of the state. And to modern uh a socialists, to the those who are pro socialists, those in government.

16:15 Right now, who's the God, not the true and living God, it's government. What's the religion, It's the other, it's the other. Excuse me, Craig, it's the other opiate. You really think about it, right, you know that? And the religion, the religion is politics, not the word of God. And and part of that is the crush opposition, to crush religious freedom, to crush uh anything that we get in their way, and and and and that's the moral good. And they do that with self righteousness, and that's what won the election by by a small minority. Bill. I would submit to you that you framed everything right.

17:03 The problem is too many Conservatives to me, Christians to me, Republicans to me, Libertarians did not vote in the last equations, and the pastors were silent. Instead, the pastors saying enough is enough. We've got to be able to protect the unborn. We've got to be able to protect the persecuted church. We got to be able to protect our free speech, we got to protect our rights to be able to spread the gospel. They instead of having a courage just standing for what's right and speaking out about getting registered and going out and voting, the Christians stayed at home. The Conservatives, Craig.

17:44 But these pastors, I just want to, you know, shake them into reality here for just a moment. Who did they think was going to going to protect life? Who did they think was going to preserve faith? When the Democratic Party had already rejected God in their platform. Clearly they spoke out clearly they were supporting abortion to the tune of over one hundred million babies have been murdered since uh since Roe v. Wade. And of course there were years before that, where abortion was still happening, you know, in the country, not not you know, federally mandated or approved. You know that that happened after Roe v. Wade. But you know, it's like, please give me a break, you know, you know, you you you decide to abandon and not you know, for the sake of your you know, an old threat from Lyndon Baines Johnson that you would lose your tax exemption. Like God needs God needs the government's tax exemption. I don't think so, right right, it's a crisis that we were going to suffer more setback. I mean, if you look at the war on Christianity that's going on at the local school boards, war on Christianity that's going on all the way in the state governments and by the bureaucracies the state of Washington, d C. The Biden administration with the Department of Justice going after pastors, pro

19:15 life leaders, conservative leaders, targeting even a presidential candidate to try to silence and and and destroy any type of opposition. That's what's taking place now. Can you imagine if we had four more years of this going on, we probably wouldn't be able to have this type of broadcast going on right now. Oh no, yeah, exactly. We would be censored. Yeah, well, and I've been. I've been censored time and again, Craig. This is just part of it. I feel like I've got to do what God's called me to do. But again, you know, look at the timeline, look at look at what uh, what one political thought has delivered to our country here just in the last five years. You know, the drag Queen story hour. Oh, that didn't come from the Republicans. I mean, that came from liberals. That from it came from the Democratic Party.

20:14 You know, abortion on demand. I mean the reason that Roe v. Wade got turned is because of forty nine years of experience, particularly women who finally stood up and said, you know what, you idiots have been lying to us. You told us it was going to be rare, it was going to be safe. It's neither one of those things you said. It was a matter of just taking a tumor out of my body. I can't tell you the last time I grieved over the loss of a tumor being extracted out of my body. But I'm grieving over the death of my child who had been eight years old today. Thank you very much. You guys lied to me. And to the day I die, I am grieving and will carry this loss of life with me because really what it all boils down to, Craig, we're back to that age old cross, that intersectional cross that God laid before us. You're either going to choose life or you're going to choose death. Yes, And the Word of God quickly says, it doesn't even hesitate, because it doesn't even want you to think about it is choose life, you know, that's what you want to do. And so all the manifestation of what we're dealing with politically, at every level of our livelihoods right now, it is at that intersection. Are you choosing life? Are you choosing death? If you choose life, there are certain things that will be manifest. The fruit that will come as a result of the choice of life is quite clear. If you choose death, then again that fruit will

21:45 be clearly manifest. And this is where we are right now. And it's up to people who are called by my name, responsible and mature Christians to help every everybody else, first of all themselves, to realize and discern what is evil and what is good. I mean this idea. For example, Craig, as you know what happened in Israel. Yes, I mean it is so astounding to me that people choose to be ignorant and not understand the evil that occurred on October the seventh. And it's evil. It's evil, clearly, it's part of this worldview that doesn't understand what a Christian worldview is. It's this worldview that from the beginning, the beginning, the hatred of the Jews. Satan has tried to stir it up. The Jews have been tried to be wiped out from the very beginning, and now we're seeing it manifest in such a huge way where it's being glorified, where the young people don't understand truth, they only understand what is right now, hatred towards at people. Yeah, well they have been indoctrinated to believe this. We have participated in. I say, we are government. We the people are the government. So we have to take responsibility for it. In importing hatred, we imported would be terrorists, young people. You know they're young. You think, oh, they're young people, they're interested in education. Little did

23:18 we know they were basically indoctrinational and theological missiles that came to attack our kids and affect their thinking because these young kids, sadly, and I'm talking about these kids that came from the Middle East that have been groomed and conditioned even while they're in their mother's womb, that they must hate Israel. There's something evil about Israel and this ancient hatred that has been going on for thousands of years, but yet our government turns a blind eye to it, and somehow thinks that just because these kids come to the United States, that they're going to leave their doctrine at the border, you know, at the airport when they come in. And you're right, Bill, You're one hundred percent right.

24:03 This is dangerous what has come into the US. I got to tell you right here what many of the viewers' grandkids or children, it's dangerous too, because what has happened is that when there was the foundation of America, even before the foundation of America, there was Christian education. There was people who read and learned based upon a Christian world near exclusively, Craig near exclusively. But the government schools have destroyed that. And anybody that's been going to any public school in the last fifty years they're getting one sided. It's to the point today even math denies reality. And so school choice is one of those issues where Christians need to be behind and seeing it done and whatever state they're in, because school choice is critical to the survival of America and those who are doing homeschooling are going to private or Christian school God bless you guys.

25:08 But we need to make sure that we turn this around. And we're not going to be able to do it by trying to win a school board though I want people to win school boards. We got to do it through changing this fundamentally. And that means the students learn truth, not lies, not missed not on reality, they learn truth. And that's only going to happen with school choice where parents can make the decision where to send their child exactly, and that will break this monopoly of ideological in doctrination mill that's going on right now. Well, I'm with you, Craig. I think I would agree. The most immediate thing, and this is what many parents across the country are doing, is they're taking their children out of public and they're homeschooling them. Yes, because the homeschooling process, I don't know if you've looked at it recently. I was involved with homeschooling with our daughter and it was phenomenal, you know, the curriculum and what was available, and how easy and organized it is, and today even more so, Craig, I mean, what is available for parents. I know that parents sometimes are intimidated.

26:26 You know, I've had these discussions with homeschooling parents and other advocates like Sam Sorbo for example, who's out there beating the drum, God bless her and encouraging parents that they can you know, you can do this. Yeah, it seems a little bit intimidating, because but look look at the choice. Like you say, you can stay in the school system, have your kid indoctrinated with Marxist ideas, be exposed to you know, sex education at without your approval, be told that they could change their sex and not have to consult you in any manner, have an abortion without your consultation, and on and on. I mean, the school system has uh has hijacked the minds of our kids. And what they have done is just an absolute disaster.

27:21 And you know, God's pretty clear about how we must protect our children. And I got to tell you this Craig. Uh. You know, educators and the school systems that have perpetrated this kind of evil upon the kids. Wow, I mean, are are they? Are they going to pay a price? You know, by by the God of Love who protects his children. You know what what you've said is so true and uh and and the dangers to them are so profound. But that goes back to what we were talking about it at the beginning. We need to be a people who are able to rejoice, pray and give thanks. And part of that is being able to understand that as Christians were sult and light. You can make a difference. We can make a difference at the local level. We can make the difference at the state level, and we can make a difference at the national level. We can have Christians are going out and making sure their church votes, going out into the community to make sure friends and family and people in their community vote. And if they can't do that, they can also pray, right, you know. And so I have hope, But I tell you I don't want to go through four more years of what we were seeing. We've got to reverse and turn this around. Now. We've got to restore the American dream right, Craig, I believe we're at that

28:56 critical point, you know, you know, and I've been talking for years about the stuff, and we often say America is at that tipping point. There's been books titled as such, and I say that we're beyond the tipping point because when you think about how fast things are happening, it's like we're on the down side of the hill. That leverage point is now tipped downward. It's not parallel any longer. It's almost becoming vertical. And with that vertical trajectory, that's why things are happening. I mean, Craig, I mean five years ago, we wouldn't be talking about you know, drag Queen story hours. We wouldn't be talking about our kids going in and having surgeries and being mutilated and having their sex altered with some sort of you know, evil you know, Frankenstein type experiment that you know, and even you know, these scientists they know better, Craig. They know that the identity of an individual biologically goes deep into the DNA, and what they're altering is external.

30:00 They can't do anything about the internal other than give you puberty blockers and do things. But the infrastructure of the biochemistry of an individual is so sank or sanct and so protected that all you're doing is you're confusing the circuits. And I can say it just from a very you know, neophyte sort of way. I'm not a scientist, I'm not a doctor. But what you study, you know and appreciate the miracle of God's creation. And you go, who are we to think that we can sit there and engineer, re engineer what God has created, that he created in each of our mother's wombs, He just sewedes together so magnificently, And you know, the makeup of the human anatomy and the body is such an incredible miracle. And you get these elitists who come in and just say, oh, no problem, I'm just going to cut your breast off and you'll be a boy, oh boy.

30:57 You know, Bill, when you hear this, you think about this, you can't believe it's happening. And that is how fast America has gone downhill. And yet that's where people can't be on the sidelines. They can't be silent anymore. They've got to take a stand for righteousness, for truth, and that's where they have to have courage to be able to speak out and speak up and do what is right and be involved and be active. And that's where the pastors and the people in the church have to be the sult and light. Just like at the American Revolution, just like in the abolition of slavery, there needs to be that passion to make sure that there's a change going on from the pulpit and from the church. And fundamental to that is the rejoicing, the praying, the thanksgiving, the the repentance that's across our entire nation individually nationally. That's the starting point to turning this around.

32:10 Well, you know, you hit a great point here, Craig, and that is that unlike other people, I mean, I think of the Wigers in China. You know, what is their hope? They're incarcerated, They're held in concentration camps. The Chinese are harvesting their organs, you know, the disgusting things, the atrocious things they're doing to fellow human beings there. These are Muslims, you know, the wagers are Muslims, and and the way, uh, you know, the communist Chinese are treating them with impunity, and you think, what hope do they have? You know? But here in our country, you know. And that's not to say that God is not going to be the answer for them. I pray that God is the answer for them. But when you're under all the years of oppression that they've been under, you can't you can't blame them for somehow just saying well, this is my lot in life. There's no hope. They don't know about God. You know, I don't know if the Gospel in any way is getting getting to them. That would be our prayer that the light of God's love would penetrate the darkness there and carry them through. But here in America we don't have an excuse. I mean really, it's you know, we still have some freedoms, We still have the ability you know, to pray, to pray, as you say, with hope, because we have experience in dealing with Almighty God, who answers prayer, right, and

33:40 that that is the hope that we have. That even as bad as it is, because we read in the Old Testament as bad as it was for Israel time and again, God says say look it, I'm gonna judge you. You guys are stiff neck. You're a bunch of knuckleheads. But by the way, if you just turn, if you just come to me, I will forgive you and I will hold off judgment. I mean, how many times did God say that in the Old Testament? And this is this is the character of the God we serve, who says the same thing to America today. You know, if my people, it starts with his people who are called by his name. If we will humble ourselves and pray, get back to what you said, Craig. We got to humble ourselves.

34:21 We got to pray. Turn, you know. And when and what happens when we pray and we're talking to God, we see it as God sees it. We see the wickedness that we've allowed to come into the camp, the wickedness that we've dropped our guard on and have accepted as ordinary instead of instead of that which is extraordinary and violates God's law. See. But when we come to God and we realize that it does humble us, it will drop us face down on the ground and realize that who were we to even pray to a holy God? Uh? And it's only by faith and us because of how we know God and because he manifested his love and forgiveness in sending his son right. Oh absolutely, it goes back to his grace and his mercy. It goes back to his love for us and the Cross.

35:15 It goes back to having us have a heart filled with tremendous thanksgiving. Bill. I hate to do this. I thought, I'm glad this is recorded. I thought that this was going to be over at twenty five and I have to get to the airport to pick up a kid. Oh yeah, Hey, hey, we're gonna we're gonna interrupt. We're gonna interrupt the TV because we have a bullet in here. Craig, you he has got to go pick up his child. Uh, Craig, you know, look at uh whatever time that we can have, and my apologies to your child who may be waiting for it at the airport. But child, Yeah, well well look at God bless you happy Thanksgiving guys for this great, great Christmas season. Yeah it's uh, but don't worry pal. You know again, We've covered a lot of great things here and I pray that our audience and our viewers have been blessed with all the great things that you've had to share with us. So thank you and and uh hugs and love to to Shelley and your prayers. I appreciate you take care of for the so much.

36:30 Lord bless everyone. You got it. Craig Huey there, you know, surprising a little bit, you know, time time restriction. But hey, that's okay. But you're getting the point here of these things that we've been you know, we've been sharing with you about, uh you know about this season and uh you know what what it what it means and what it should mean to us. I will share with you in uh, these last minutes that we have together. You know, Craig had mentioned President George Washington's Thanksgiving Proclamation that he laid out and it's available to on the internet. You can google it, but I'm going to read it to you right now. It was from October third, seventeen eighty nine. It says, by the President of the United States of America, a proclamation where it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor.

37:37 And whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me to recommend to the people of the United States, a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportun tunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness. Keep in mind, this was our first national holiday, and this was the proclamation of this first national holiday of this young country of ours, as it was coming out of its womb and developing.

38:21 Now. Therefore, he goes on, I do recommend and design Thursday, the twenty sixth day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious being being capitalized with a capital be, referring to God, who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be, that we may all unite in rendering under Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation. For the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable innerpositions of His providence which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late War for the Great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed, for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted, for the one and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge, and in general, for all the great and various favors which He hath been pleased to confer upon us.

39:52 And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplicate to the Great Lord and Ruler of nations, and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions, to enable us, all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually, to render our national government of blessing to all the people, by constantly being a government of wise, just and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed, to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations, especially such have shown kindness unto us, and to bless them with good government, peace and concord to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us, and generally to grant unto all mankind such of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best given under my hand.

41:07 At the City of New York, the third day of October, in the year of our Lord, seventeen eighty nine, President George Washington. Wow, what a powerful proclamation, and I share that with you. My prayer would be is that this would be a document, along with the Constitution and Declaration of Independence, that we should constantly read at various times whenever we get our families together, you know, at dinner time, and celebrations of holidays, especially, you know, civic holidays like the Fourth of July and others that remind us of our heritage. You know, people want to take exception of America's exceptionalism, but I would dare say that we've earned it. We've not earned it out of perfection. We've earned it because of the blessings of God Almighty, and it is part of our birthright. We're having a conversation with one of our guests earlier in the week in understanding our birthright and how God honors the birthright. America has a birthright. We were birth by God, and there came rights and privileges with that birthright, with his hand upon us in much the same way as his hand has been upon Israel. And it is imperative that we honor that birthright and we protect it. There's no doubt that there are antithical forces that would come against that. It is the nature

42:37 of man. Sadly, because again we go back to that crossroads. You know, it's either life or death. You know, what are we pursuing. If we're pursuing life, there's specific manifestations, you might say, fruits, fruits of that life tree that will be manifest as a result of the worldview, the thinking, the decisions that we make. Again, you've heard me say, the opportunity where we are right now is that we can think better, we can do better, and we can be better. Okay, think about that. It's not like, you know, anything's being asked of us to say, all right, you know, I want you to work. Instead of forty hours a week, I want you to work eighty hours a week. No, it's like, just do better, you know, how about fifteen more minutes can you have fifteen more minutes a week that was you know, specifically sanctified and set aside, just to think and do and be better. The cumulative impact of days, weeks, months, and years of that kind of thinking could catapult us individually corporately as a nation. You know, that light on a shining hill that John Winthrop, that was his prayer that America would be that shining light on the hill. That was inspirational.

44:01 And I believe, you know again, what gives that cretence and longstanding is that I believe that it came from God himself. God deposited those words into his spirit, his desire to pray that in much the same way when Jesus asked Peter when he said who do they say I am? And Peter says, you know, because all the apostles had an idea, whether it was John the Baptist, or Elijah or Elisha, you know, some reborn you know, prophet of past. But Peter says, no, you're you're the Messiah. You know, you're Jesus Christ. You are the Messiah, the sanctified one of God. And Jesus said, Peter, because you declared who I am? And I know that didn't come from man, that came from God. God told you that. And because God told you that, I'm going to bless you, and you told me who I am, and I'm going to tell you who you you are. And then Jesus went on to tell Peter that he was going to be the leader of this new institute, institution the church, whose responsibility it would be to take the gospel message from Jerusalem, Judaeus, Samaria and the uttermost parts of the world. Okay, and so you know, you you think, and I don't know, maybe it's the age that I'm at. I don't know doing this, you know TV and the radio show that God has blessed me with. That's and

45:34 certainly I know it's because of you know, my commitment to be in His word. I'm especially sensitive. I'm especially sensitive to hearing the word of God. And as Craig mentioned, the worldview you align you can't help but align yourself with it. When those things match up with you know, the life provision, you know, the life world view, the life proposition that God gives us. And it's also what you know disturbs us when we come in contact with that which is death. It's like chalk. Hitting the chalkboard in the wrong directions screeches, and it just rattles your nerves right. And so that is what I hope for you and I share that with you, hopefully that you know this will make sense to you, because that's this is where we are right now, more than ever before. You know, life and death. Are we going to choose life? You know, for our marriages, you know, for our family, for our grandkids, our heritage.

46:38 Is that the commitment are we going to you know, dance with you know, it's my my buddy, doctor David Rubin. Michael Rubin says, you know, dancing with rogue regimes. There are rogue regimes, whether they're political, they're spiritual, rogue regimes that somehow we think we can dance with and think it's okay and play with death. We do so at at die consequences. And I think that we can see that more and more, and this is what's happening. So my faith is in all of you, people who are called by his name, people who want to be called by his name, that you would make that commitment and understand and hopefully this touches, this touches you, and it touches your spirit in such a way that it causes you to make an immediate decision. An immediate decision life and death stands before you choose life. Thank you so much for being with us. Our thanks to Craig Huey for sharing his time and spending time with us on this show.

47:42 Bless you, and again thank you for sharing a part of your day with us. May you be blessed. May God bless you and keep you. May His face shine upon you, May He be gracious unto you, and may He give you peace. Thanks again for being with us. God bless happy Thanksgiving for a great and joyful holidays. Eason. My prayer is for you. Thank you. M