God's Delight…
Not serried ranks
with flags unfurled,
Nor armored ships that gird the world,
Nor hoard wealth, nor busy mills,
Not cattle on a thousand hills,
Not sages wise, nor schools nor laws,
Not boasted deeds in freedom's cause…
All these may be
and yet the State
In the eyes of God be far from great.
That land is great which knows the Lord,
Whose songs are guided by His Word.
Where justice rules 'twixt man and man,
Where love controls in art and plan,
Where breathing in his native air,
Each soul finds joy in praise and prayer.
Thus may our country, good and great,
Be God's delight… man's best estate.
-
Alexander Blackburn
"Our
civilization cannot survive materially
Unless it is
redeemed spiritually.
It can be
saved only by becoming permeated
With the Spirit
of Christ and being made free
And happy by the
practices which spring out
Of that
Spirit."
- Woodrow
Wilson 1923
What we obtain
too cheap, we esteem too lightly;
'Tis dearness
only that gives everything its value.
Heaven knows how
to put a proper price upon its goods;
And it would be
strange indeed, if so celestial an article
As Freedom should
not be highly rated.
Thomas Paine 1776
I have always
admired and esteemed
President
Ronald Reagan
I recently came
across this sermon that
Speaks to his
mother’ faith which no
Doubt had a
tremendous impact on
Our beloved
President’s life.
- Hayden Childs
Nelle Reagan’s Son…
Godly mothers
throughout history have greatly influenced their
Children.
President Theodore Roosevelt said,
The good mother,
the wise mother, is more important to the
Community than
even the ablest person; her career is more worthy
Of honor and is
more useful to the community than the career of
Any other person,
no matter how successful.
Does that hold true
in our time? Yes, it does. I can think of no
Greater
illustration of this than that of Nelle Reagan… and her son,
Ronald Wilson
Reagan, the fortieth President of the United States.
Ronald Reagan was
born in 1911 in the tiny town of Tampico, Illinois,
The second son of
Jack and Nelle Reagan. Ronald Reagan was
Nicknamed “Dutch”
by his father. The name stuck, and close friends
Often call the
late president “Dutch” to this day. But Dutch’s father
Was a nominal
Catholic and a hard drinker. His mother, Nelle, was
A Protestant who
took her faith seriously.
Jack Reagan moved
his family around as he sought better work.
They finally
moved from the tiny town of Tampico to Dixon, Illinois,
Where they lived
in five different rented houses. One neighbor said,
“They were awful
poor.”
Moving to so many
places caused “Dutch” to become introverted,
Shy and lonely.
As a child, Dutch said he was “a little slow at making
Friends. In some
ways I think this reluctance to get close to people
Never left me
entirely.” When I met him with my family in his office,
I sensed shyness
about him. But he covered it up well as President.
You can see
photos of my boys, my wife and I, with President Reagan
On the wall of
our church, on the second floor.
I am now going to
quote directly from God and Ronald
Reagan,
By Dr. Paul
Kengor (Harper Collins Publishers, 2004). I will quote
Several
paragraphs.
[Ronald Reagan]
first sought and connected to God as a lonely boy…
Another failing
[of his father] may have contributed further to Dutch’s
Turn to God…
shortly after young Reagan’s eleventh birthday…
He was expecting
to come home to an empty house. Instead, he was
Shaken by the
sight of [his father] sprawled out in the snow on the
Front porch,
passed out, flat on his back, freezing, too inebriated to
Make it to the
door. “He was drunk,” his son remembered.
“Dead to the
world.”
Dutch grabbed a
fistful of [his father’s] overcoat and heaved him
Toward the door.
He dragged him into the house and to the bedroom…
It was a sad moment.
Dutch felt no anger, no resentment, just grief…
His world was in
chaos… again…He was only 11 years old.
The event
occurred at a crucial time in young Reagan’s spiritual
Development. Four
months later he would be baptized, starting life over
as a member of
the church. The thought of his father sprawled in the
Snow might have
lingered in Reagan’s mind that day, as it would the
Rest of his life.
[At that point,
his mother] became the formative figure in leading
Ronald Reagan to
become a Christian.
Biographers
usually begin the story of Nelle’s own faith in Dixon,
But her role
earlier in the church in Tampico
deserves attention.
In the last
months before [his father] moved the family yet again,
Nelle was very
active in the church…Drawn by a 1910 revival held
There, one source
claims that Nelle ran the pastor less church virtually
Single-handed,
writing bulletins, preparing Sunday programs, prodding
The congregation
to better support the struggling church, and even
Doing a fair
amount of preaching... Even after moving to Dixon,
Nelle made
frequent trips back to Tampico
to help her old church,
With Dutch in
tow.
[Then Reagan’s
mother joined the church in Dixon].
The [church] first
Met in the
basement of the town’s YMCA until it could raise funds for
A building. The
new church opened…on June 18, 1922.
Nelle [Reagan]
became a leader, eventually a pillar, in the local church.
Aside from the
minister, she was the most visible face… Nelle’s
[Sunday School]
class was the largest. The church directory for 1922
Registered
thirty-one students in her class; the pastor’s class had only
Five, his wife’s
nine.
Nelle gave
religious readings, both outside the church and within…
A service for
which she was in great demand. Blessed with an engaging
Voice and the
confidence of a natural performer… qualities she passed
On to her son…
she also acted in many plays… In June 1926, she
Brought the house
down at the Baptist church with a reading titled
“The Ship of
Faith.”
…Nelle published
an “Armistice Day Poem” in…1926, in which she
Urged that “God
forbid that we forget” those soldiers who gave their
Lives [in World
War I]. Those brave men, wrote Nelle, “Have won for
The world
democracy, and doomed forever and always the cruel
Autocracy”… In
1927, Nelle appeared at the American Legion to give
What was
described as a “splendid talk” on the boyhood of George
Washington… surely a story that must have made an
impression on
[Her young son].
A firm believer
in the power of prayer, she led prayer meetings at
Church. When the
minister vacationed…she was put in charge of
Mid-week prayers
and she led discussions on prayer…Nelle [also]
Acted as a
“leader,” providing “home prayer services.”
[Here is the
testimony of Mrs. Mildred Neer, concerning Nelle Reagan’s
Prayer for her
daughter. The girl had become so sick that she could
Neither eat nor
sleep. The mother went to church. Here’s what she said]:
When the service
was dismissed, I couldn’t leave my seat. At last
Everybody left
except Mrs. Reagan…
I thought, “If
only I could talk to Mrs. Reagan,” and went up to her…
I told her about
our daughter, and she said, “Let’s go into the back
Room.” We did.
Then Mrs. Reagan said, “Let’s get down on our knees
And pray about
it.” She gave a wonderful prayer and when [we stood]
I felt the prayer
was answered. I went home. Pretty soon there was a
Knock on the
door. It was Mrs. Reagan. She spent the whole afternoon
[In prayer] with
us. She left about six o’clock. Moments later the abscess
[On the daughter]
burst. The next morning the doctor said, “I don’t need
To lance this.”
God had heard Nelle Reagan’s prayer and answered it.
Another member of
the congregation recalled:
…She never laid
on the hands or anything like that. It was the way she
Prayed, down on
her knees, eyes raised up and speaking like she knew
God personally,
like she had had lots of dealing with him before. If someone
Had real troubles
or was sick, Nelle would come to their house and kneel
And pray… folks
could bear things a lot better after she left.
…it is hardly
surprising that even as an adult Nelle’s son believed so
Strongly in the
power of prayer.
Nelle Reagan
dedicated her life earnestly to the “poor and helpless.”
It was a promise
she is said to have made to her own mother on her
Mother’s deathbed…
She gave special attention to those behind bars…
She [often]
headed faithfully to the jail to read the Bible to the incarcerated…
There are even
accounts of criminals changing their behavior as a direct
Result of her
ministry… one actually in the midst of a criminal act.
[One young
hoodlum talked with Nelle at the jail. Afterwards, when he got
Out, he hitched a
ride and was planning to rob the driver at gunpoint.
When he got out
of the car, he said] “Goodbye, thanks for the ride”…
“You’ll find a
gun in the back seat. I was going to use it, but I was talking
To a woman at the
jail…” Nelle Reagan had persuaded him to leave a
Life of crime.
In the summer of
1924, she helped raise money to erect a chapel for the
Russian church in
New York City,
a symbolic act that showed solidarity
With Russian
Christians [under Communism].
In April 1927…
she held a talk on Japan
and the status of Christianity
There.
Nelle Reagan had
a heart for God, and she did her best to impart that faith
To her son Ronald.
It was her prayer that he would one day take that faith
To the world.
On July 21, 1922,
three days after the church opened…Dutch, his brother
Neil, and
twenty-three others were the first to be baptized in the new church.
It was Ronald
Reagan’s own idea to be baptized. He said he had had
“A personal
experience with Christ.”
As an adult,
[President] Reagan would refer to the Bible as his favorite
Book, and as “the greatest message ever written.”
That its words were
Of divine origin
and inspiration he said he “never had any doubt.”
After being
baptized [Ronald] Reagan became an especially active member
[Of the church].
[Reagan, his mother, and brother did the same thing every Sunday.
His brother
recalled the schedule]. “Sunday school Sunday mornings, church
Sunday morning,
Christian Endeavor Sunday evening, church after Christian
Endeavor, and prayer meeting on Wednesdays”…
At fifteen, Dutch began
teaching his own Sunday school class… “He became a
leader among those boys,”
recalled childhood friend Savila Palmer. “They looked
up to him.”
Ronald Reagan
went on to attend a Christian college. In 1981 he became the
President of the United States of America.
He took the oath of office as
President with his hand on his mother’s
Bible, and said,
“So help me God.”
As President,
Ronald Reagan opposed abortion on Biblical grounds.
He said, I believe no challenge is more important to
the character of
America
than restoring the right to life to all human beings.
Without that right, no other rights have
meaning.
“Suffer the little children to come unto
me, and forbid them not,
For such is the kingdom of God.”
In his 1986 State
of the Union Address, he said,
Today there is a wound in our national
conscience.
America
will never be whole as long as the right to life granted
By our Creator is denied to the unborn.
Abortion was a
moral issue on which he refused to compromise as
President.
President Reagan
also strongly opposed godless Communism throughout
His presidency.
He called the Soviet Union an “Evil Empire.”
He said, in his
Great speech at
the Berlin Wall, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”
He believed that
the atheism of Communism was inherently evil.
He built up
American military might knowing that the Soviet Union
would
Have to match it,
and would crumble as a result.
It did crumble,
exactly as he knew it would.
More than any
other single individual, Ronald Reagan was responsible for
The end of the
“Evil Empire and the end of the spread of world-wide Communism.
His biographer Edmund
Morris said, “He wants Christianity in Moscow,
It’s as simple as
that.” And Ronald Reagan lived to see his prayer become reality!
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