America: Willingly Decayed To Its Own Death

 Exodus 21:22-23

If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman's husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine.

And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life,

One need go no further than Exodus 21:22-23 to understand how it is America not only lost its way - but is in fact now dead in the water - the last gasp for breath occurred in November 2012. America is dead – it is now nothing more than a dead country floating in a sea of unimaginable iniquity. Incredibly, this once great and godly country has willingly decayed to its own death. Sharks love decaying flesh, and the sharks are circling - the corpse is about to be devoured. That is the bad news. 

The good news is the church, on the other hand, (the Bride of Christ), will ultimately survive. We know from God’s Word Jesus will return for a Bride. The Bride will survive, not because it deserves to survive, - at least not in the eyes of man - but survives because God has already forgiven His chosen people (as difficult as that is to imagine). The forgiveness God makes available to the Church - as He does for the world at large - is available for the taking, but the taking requires a true repentance. A repentance of the heart; a repentance of deed. And therein lays the rub – with both the Church and the world.

My hope is for those of us who have a real desire to be included as a part of the Bride, will soon come to the realization of our need for repentance. In doing so, we sincerely repent of our apathy towards both the righteousness of our God, and also of the destructive unrighteousness allowed to overtime kill America – unrighteousness allowed to kill America while the Church watched. 

When we as individuals, and the Church as a whole, do repent of this terrible sin, it is my sincere belief, we the - the Bride of Christ, will be given a second chance to establish a new country; a country, once again, hungry to serve and trust the one true God. A country built on a solid Biblical foundation; a country free from tyranny. A country free to worship God or not, but yet a country unashamedly founded on the teachings of the God’s Holy Word. A new America.

I believe this new America, a new America blessed by God, is well within the grasp of the surviving Bride of Christ. Let those of us who love the LORD not miss such a great and wonderful opportunity - let us repent - let us experience what God can do.

Christmas Playlist

375 Christmas Songs

Katy Skillings Sings 'Heart Of Stone'

Singer/song writer, Katy Skillings, has released her first CD titled 'Heart Of Stone'. Katy has a unique sound that compliments and enhances the songs she writes and sings. It is my pleasure to share her music on A Reasoned Report. 

Katy's CD, Heart of Stone, can be purchased on line at Amazon.com, iTunes and other websites. I have embedded the CDs three songs taken from Spotify.

The Christmas Story

The Prophecy

The Virgin Mary

Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!”

But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” 

Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”

And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible.” Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.    ^{Luke 1:26-38} 

Joseph of Nazareth

After Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.” 

So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”

Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife, and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name JESUS. ^{Matthew 1:18-25} 

The Baby Jesus

And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. So all went to be registered everyone to his own city.

Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child. So it was that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. ^{Luke 2:1-7}

The Shepherds

Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.”

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”
      

So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven that the shepherds said to one another, “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.” And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger. Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them. ^{Luke 2:8-20}

The Wise Men

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.”

When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.

So they said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet: ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, 

Are not the least among the rulers of Judah;

For out of you shall come a Ruler 

Who will shepherd My people Israel.’”

Then Herod, when he had secretly called the wise men, determined from them what time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the young Child, and when you have found Him, bring back word to me, that I may come and worship Him also.”

When they heard the king, they departed; and behold, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy.

And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Then, being divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way. ^{Matthew 2:1-12}

The Reason

   Whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. ^{John 3:15-17}

Their Foot Shall Slip In Due Time

An Excerpt From The Sermon

Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God

by Jonathan Edwards

O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in:

  1.  it is a great furnace of wrath,

  2.  a wide and bottomless pit,

  3.  full of the fire of wrath,

  4.  that you are held over in the hand of that God, 

  5.  whose wrath is provoked and incensed as much against you,

  6.  as against many of the damned in hell.

You hang by a slender thread,

  1.  with the flames of divine wrath flashing about it,

  2.  and ready every moment to singe it,

  3.  and burn it asunder;

  4.  and you have no interest in any Mediator,

  5.  and nothing to lay hold of to save yourself,

      a.  nothing to keep off the flames of wrath,

      b.  nothing of your own,

      c.   nothing that you ever have done,

      d.  nothing that you can do,

          1)  to induce God to spare you one moment.

And consider here more particularly,

Whose wrath it is:

  1. it is the wrath of the infinite God. 

  2. If it were only the wrath of man, 

        a. though it were of the most potent prince, 

        b. it would be comparatively little to be regarded. 

  3. The wrath of kings is very much dreaded, 

        a. especially of absolute monarchs, 

        b. who have the possessions and lives of their subjects wholly  in their power, 

        c. to be disposed of at their mere will. 

Prov. 20:2. "The fear of a king is as the roaring of a lion: Whoso provoketh him to anger, sinneth against his own soul." 

  4. The subject that very much enrages an arbitrary prince, 

        a. is liable to suffer the most extreme torments that human art can invent,

        b. or human power can inflict. 

  5. But the greatest earthly potentates 

        a. in their greatest majesty and strength, 

        b. and when clothed in their greatest terrors, 

        c. are but feeble, 

           1) despicable worms of the dust,

           2) in comparison of the great and almighty Creator and King of heaven and earth. 

       d. It is but little that they can do, 

           1) when most enraged, 

           2) and when they have exerted the utmost of their fury. 

        e. All the kings of the earth, 

           1) before God, 

           2) are as grasshoppers; 

           3) they are nothing, 

           4) and less than nothing: 

              - both their love and their hatred is to be despised. 

  6. The wrath of the great King of kings, 

        a. is as much more terrible than theirs, 

        b. as his majesty is greater. 

Luke 12:4,5. "And I say unto you, my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that, have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom you shall fear: fear him, which after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell: yea, I say unto you, Fear him."

        c. It is the fierceness of his wrath that you are exposed to. 

        d.We often read of the fury of God; as in 

Isa. 59:18. "According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay fury to his adversaries." 

So Isa. 66:15. "For behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire." 

              - And in many other places. 

So, Rev. 19:15, we read of "the wine press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God." 

        e. The words are exceeding terrible. 

            1) If it had only been said, 

            2) "the wrath of God," 

            3) the words would have implied that which is infinitely dreadful: 

            4) but it is "the fierceness and wrath of God." 

            5) The fury of God! 

            6) the fierceness of Jehovah! 

            7) Oh, how dreadful that must be! 

            8) Who can utter or conceive what such expressions carry in them! 

            9) But it is also "the fierceness and wrath of almighty God." 

                    a) As though there would be a very great manifestation of his almighty power 

                   b) in what the fierceness of his wrath should inflict, 

                   c) as though omnipotence should be as it were enraged, 

                   d) and exerted, 

                   e) as men are wont to exert their strength in the fierceness of their wrath. 

          10) Oh! then, what will be the consequence! 

          11) What will become of the poor worms that shall suffer it! 

          12) Whose hands can be strong? 

          13) And whose heart can endure? 

          14) To what a 

                  a) dreadful, 

                  b) inexpressible, 

                  c) inconceivable depth of misery 

                  d) must the poor creature be sunk

                  e) who shall be the subject of this!

Consider this,

  1.  you that are here present,

      -        that yet remain in an unregenerate state.

  2.  That God will execute the fierceness of his anger,

      a.  implies, that he will inflict wrath without any pity.

      b.  When God beholds the ineffable extremity of your case,

          1)  and sees your torment to be so fastly disproportioned to your strength,

2)  and sees how your poor soul is crushed,

3)  and sinks down,

4)  as it were, into an infinite gloom;

5)  he will have no compassion upon you,

6)  he will not forbear the executions of his wrath,

7)  or in the least lighten his hand;

8)  there shall be no moderation or mercy,

9)  nor will God then at all stay his rough wind;

10)  he will have no regard to your welfare,

11)   nor be at all careful

a)  lest you should suffer too much in any other sense,

b)  than only that you shall not suffer beyond what strict justice requires.

c.   Nothing shall be withheld,

-        because it is so hard for you to bear.

Ezek. 8:18. "Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity; and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet I will not hear them."

   3.  Now God stands ready to pity you;

       a.  this is a day of mercy;

       b.  you may cry now with some encouragement of obtaining mercy.

       c.   But when once the day of mercy is past,

          1)  your most lamentable and dolorous cries and shrieks will be in vain;

          2)  you will be wholly lost and thrown away of God,

-        as to any regard to your welfare.

   4.  God will have no other use to put you to,

        a.  but to suffer misery;

        b.  you shall be continued in being to no other end;

        c.   for you will be a vessel of wrath fitted to destruction;

        d.  and there will be no other use of this vessel,

-        but to be filled full of wrath.

   5.  God will be so far from pitying you when you cry to him,

-        that it is said he will only "laugh and mock," Prov. 1:25,26.

   6.  How awful are those words, Isa. 63:3,

       a.  which are the words of the great God.

"I will tread them in mine anger, and will trample them in my fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment."

   b.  It is perhaps impossible to conceive of words

      1)  that carry in them greater manifestations of these three things,

          a)  contempt,

          b)  and hatred,

          c)  and fierceness of indignation.

   c.   If you cry to God to pity you,

       1)  he will be so far from pitying you in your doleful case,  

       2)  or showing you the least regard or favor, that instead of that,   he will only tread you under foot.

   d.  And though he will know that you cannot bear the weight of omnipotence treading upon you,

       1)  yet he will not regard that,

       2)  but he will crush you under his feet without mercy;

       3)  he will crush out your blood, 

       4)  and make it fly,

       5)  and it shall be sprinkled on his garments,
                - so as to stain all his raiment.
       6)  He will not only hate you,
       7)  but he will have you in the utmost contempt:
           a)  no place shall be thought fit for you,
           b)  but under his feet to be trodden down as the mire of the streets.

The misery you are exposed to is that which

God will inflict to that end,

1.  that he might show what that wrath of Jehovah is.

2.  God hath had it on his heart to show to angels and men,

    a.  both how excellent his love is,

    b.  and also how terrible his wrath is.

    3.  Sometimes earthly kings have a mind to show how terrible their wrath is,

        a.  by the extreme punishments they would execute

        b.  on those that would provoke them.

    4.  Nebuchadnezzar, that mighty and haughty monarch of the Chaldean empire,

        a.  was willing to show his wrath

        b.  when enraged with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego;

        c.   and accordingly gave orders that the burning fiery furnace

           1)  should be heated seven times hotter than it was before;

           2)  doubtless, it was raised to the utmost degree of fierceness that human art could raise it.

    5.  But the great God is also willing to

        a.  show his wrath,

        b.  and magnify his awful majest

        c.   and mighty power in the extreme sufferings of his enemies.

Rom. 9:22. "What if God, willing to show his wrath,
and to make his power known, endured with much 
long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to
destruction?"

     d.  And seeing this is his design,

        1)  and what he has determined,

        2)  even to show how terrible the unrestrained wrath, the fury and fierceness of Jehovah is,

        3)  he will do it to effect.

     e.  There will be something

        1)  accomplished and brought to pass

        2)  that will be dreadful with a witness.

     f.    When the great and angry God hath risen up

        1)  and executed his awful vengeance on the poor sinner,

        2)  and the wretch is actually suffering

                 -        the infinite weight and power of his indignation,

        3)  then will God call upon the whole universe

            a)  to behold that awful majesty

            b)  and mighty power that is to be seen in it.

Isa. 33:12-14. "And the people shall be as the burning of lime, as thorns cut up shall they be burnt in the fire. Hear ye that are far off, what I have done; and ye that are near, acknowledge my might. The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites, "

Thus it will be with you

   1.  that are in an unconverted state,

   2.  if you continue in it;

   3.  the infinite might, and majesty, and terribleness of the omnipotent God

       a.  shall be magnified upon you,

       b.  in the ineffable strength of your torments.

    4.  You shall be tormented

       a.  in the presence of the holy angels,

       b.  and in the presence of the Lamb;

       c.   and when you shall be in this state of suffering,

          1)  the glorious inhabitants of heaven shall go forth and look on the awful spectacle,

          2)  that they may see what the wrath and fierceness of the Almighty is;

       d.  and when they have seen it,

          1)   they will fall down

          2)  and adore that great power and majesty.

Isa. 66:23,24. "And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord. And they shall go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me; for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched, and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh."

It is everlasting wrath.

    1.  It would be dreadful to suffer this fierceness and wrath of Almighty God one moment;

        a.  but you must suffer it to all eternity.

        b.  There will be no end to this exquisite horrible misery.

        c.   When you look forward,

           1)  you shall see a long forever,

           2)  a boundless duration before you,

           3)  which will swallow up your thoughts,

           4)  and amaze your soul;

           5)  and you will absolutely despair

               a)  of ever having any deliverance,

               b)  any end,

               c)  any mitigation,

               d)  any rest at all.

           6)  You will know certainly

               a)  that you must wear out long ages,

               b)  millions of millions of ages,

               c)  in wrestling and conflicting

                   -        with this almighty merciless vengeance;

               d)  and then when you have so done,

               e)  when so many ages have actually been spent by you in this

               f)   you will know that all is but a point to what remains.

               g)  So that your punishment will indeed be infinite.

           7)  Oh, who can express what the state of a soul in such circumstances is!

           8)  All that we can possibly say about it,

              a)  gives but a very feeble, faint representation of it;

              b)  it is inexpressible and inconceivable:

   2.  For "who knows the power of God's anger?"

Max McLean reciting Jonathan Edwards message Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God