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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! 

 

https://www.rlhymersjr.com/Online_Sermons/2015/051015AM_NelleReagansSon_wiki.html