Congress Shall Make No Law...

The first amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercises thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or the press, or the right of people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievance.”

The key phrase is “Congress shall make no law...” The only one that can violate the first amendment is Congress. The courts have extended this prohibition to other legislative bodies. They have not extended it to individuals. A student in elementary school, secondary school, or college, or a citizen anywhere cannot violate the amendment. It might be extended to teachers if they are making rules. College professors violate it all of the time with impunity.

I am grateful for the Constitution. I swore to uphold it for eleven years of my life, when I was in the Navy. I am still committed to defending it from all enemies, public and private. However, there is a higher moral law that preexisted all government laws. Murder was sin long before it was codified as crime.

Good government laws reflect the higher moral law. When they contradict the higher moral law, the nation is in decay. Christians should continue to follow the moral law, even if it means being fined or incarcerated.

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Ripe for Harvest: Prepared to Give an Answer

As you read through the book of Acts, look at every conversion, and see what happened right before it: what was said, who said it. The situations are the same today. A long time ago, my duty in the Officer’s Christian Fellowship was the east coast of the United States. I went to an officer’s office at Fort Lee, VA, and stayed overnight, then I went on to Norfolk and Fort Bragg. Forty years later, I was no longer on the staff of OCF, but I had to go to Denver. While I was in Denver, I checked in at the OCF offices. There was the same Air Force officer I had met in Fort Lee, retired now, a colonel. I had stayed in his house when he was a first lieutenant. He asked me, “Do you know what happened when you stayed overnight?” I said, “No, I just remember staying in your home.” He said, “You led the next-door neighbor to Christ.” I had no memory of it. Ten years after that, I was speaking at a banquet at the Hotel Salisbury, and who was th...

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There are several reasons why obedience seems hard. I will comment on some of them and then speak positively on how obedience is easy. We think: 1) Obedience is an infringement on freedom. Since we are free in Christ, and obedience is somehow contrary to that freedom, we conclude that obedience is not good. Yet we know it is good. Thus, we become confused about obedience and are not single-minded. 2) Obedience is works. We who have been justified by grace through faith are opposed to works; therefore, we are opposed to obedience. 3) We have tried to obey and have failed—frequently. Therefore, the only solution is to disobey and later confess to receive forgiveness. It is easier to be forgiven by grace than to obey by effort. 4) We confuse obedience to men with obedience to God. Although these are sometimes one and the same (see Romans 13, 1 Peter 2-3, Ephesians 5-6, Colossians 3, and Titus 2), sometimes they are not the same (see Colossians 2:20-23, Mark 7, 1 Timothy 4:1-5, a...

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Roots by the River

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