Notes for the book presentation by Gordon A. Dickson
12 Ways You Can Make a Difference in This Crazy, Mixed-up World
” May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” (Romans 15:13)
Symptoms of our Crazy, Mixed-up, American Society
Recent news articles (revised September 13, 2024)
Religious ‘Nones’ are now the largest single group in the U.S.
“When you read statistics such as these, you may naturally ask, ‘Is there any real hope?’ Yes, there is hope… We can see this, even in American history. Consider the way that David Barrow, a Baptist, summarized his tour of Kentucky in 1795: “Of all the denominations I can remember to have seen in that country, the Deists, Nothingarians and anythingnarians are the most numerous.’”[i] (excerpt from the book)
‘Fatherlessness’ is one of the ‘true root causes’ of crime in America: Jason Riley
Biden Admin Pours $1 Million Into Studies Aimed At Denying There Are Only Two Genders
Matthew 19:4 [Jesus] answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female …?
Hostility Against Churches Is on the Rise in the United States: Analyzing Incidents from 2018-2023
America’s ‘Debt Spiral’ Is Nearing a Critical Threshold
Interest Payments on the National Debt Tops $1 Trillion … (Annually)
‘Fourth Wave’ of Opioid Epidemic Crashes Ashore, Propelled by Fentanyl and Meth
Suicides in U.S. hit historic high in 2022, driven by increase among older adults
Army Report Shows Increase in Suicides by Active-Duty Soldiers in 2023
Study finds military suicide rates highest among tank brigades
Our Border and the Gotaways
It’s pretty obvious that terrorists who have crossed over Biden’s open border are testing our vulnerabilities.
Heidi Przybyla apologizes for her comments about Christian nationalism
Artificial research: A recent surge of academic fraud spells trouble for scientific integrity
‘I’m a cultural Christian’, declares Richard Dawkins, the world’s most famous atheist
The path to civilizational destruction should be very familiar by now by Victor Davis Hanson
- Wipe out a 2,000 mile border.
- Run up a $35 trillion national debt.
- Appease or subsidize enemies like Iran and China.
- In a multiracial democracy, redefine identity only as one’s tribal affiliation.
- Recalibrate violent crime as understandable, cry-of-the-heart expressions of social justice.
- Emasculate the military by using non-meritocratic standards of race, gender, and sexual orientation to determine promotion and commendation.
- Reinvent the justice system to indict, bankrupt, convict, jail and eliminate political opponents.
- Encourage the fusion of the bureaucratic state with the electronic media to form a powerful force for political audit, surveillance, censorship and coercion.
- Make war on affordable gasoline and natural gas.
- Marry late, but preferably not at all.
- Turn world-class universities into indoctrination centers.
Loose Talk about the End of Everything by Victor Davis Hanson
Hanson rightly reminds us about the great need for a national defense using excellent historical parallels. But as I argued in a recent post (When Killers Issue Wild, Lunatic Threats – Live, Serve, Lead (liveservelead.com) we need to go deeper: we need to look for parallels such as the one in Isaiah 22. (See also, chapter 26, page 207 in 12 Ways You Can Make a Difference in This Crazy, Mixed-up World.
The Way Back
Where Is God?
“Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” (James 4:8)
“For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. (Romans 1:21)
The Way Back
The Challenge of Personal Change
The Blessings of the Beatitudes
Sinners, Saints and Soul Winners
The Challenge to Pray
“We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. There is no one who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to take hold of You…” (Isaiah 64:6-7)
When you sense that your society is senseless
When many of your public officials are unjust
The Challenge for Believers to be involved in all three God-Ordained Institutions
The Church (Ephesians 3:20-21)
The Home (Ephesians 5:17-6:4)
The Government (Romans 13, Matthew 22:21)
12 Ways You Can Make a Difference in This Crazy, Mixed-up World
[i] John B. Boles, The Great Revival: Beginnings of the Bible Belt (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 1996), 214. Kindle.
Contact information for Gordon Dickson
servant.leader@outlook.com
Gordon@LiveServeLead.com
@GordonDickson on Twitter (X)
Website: LiveServeLead.com