Let's talk about someone whose name is synonymous with education and learning, and someone whose name is likely more used today than even that of George Washington. We're talking, of course, about Daniel Webster, whose name is on the overwhelming majority of the dictionaries used in schools and institutions of higher learning.

Last week, I started sharing a statement from David Barton concerning some notes that James Madison wrote concerning the Federal Convention of 1787. I realized later that I cut off what he was saying, so let’s go back today and get the first part, and then finish with James Madison’s full statement concerning that convention. "Although authorized by the Congress of the Confederation, the Constitutional Convention of 1787 was nevertheless cloaked with secrecy and confidentiality. The official papers of the Convention sat in the Department of State, untouched, until 1818. Yet in retrospect, the gathering reveals both the men and the issues they faced during the founding era. Through analysis of both the Philadelphia debates and the various ratification conventions, we realize the concerns and needs of a developing nation.

In last week’s Coffee Break, I deviated somewhat from the discussions on our nation's founding fathers -- those who were actively involved in the politics and policies that brought those American colonists together to form a cohesive nation under God -- to talk about a couple of preachers (Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield) whose lives, whose teaching and preaching became integrated into the thoughts and decision-making processes that formulated our Articles of Association in 1774; the Declaration of Independence in 1776; the Articles of Confederation in 1781 and the United States Constitution in 1788.

We will continue the discussion today that we began last week in dealing with the words that appear in Scripture that define witchcraft, or its tentacles. If I didn’t mention it last week, let me say that there are seven words used through Scripture that translate out to “witchcraft,” “sorcery,” “necromancy,” and all the varieties thereof.   People today – and especially believing Christians – have no idea of the things they accept as “normal” in today’s world that are some variant of witchcraft or sorcery. By the way, we generally use the word, “witchcraft,” when we are referring to women or the feminine usage of manipulation. “Sorcery” refers to the masculine or male activity in this realm.

Several years ago, I was prompted to do a study on witchcraft and discovered that there are a host of words and applications in Scripture that spell out in great detail the nature and character of witchcraft and its tentacles.   This is a study that I can’t even begin to share in a week or even two weeks, so we will likely spend the next three weeks talking about it. My objective is not to focus on something that is so dark and negative — even if I have to for a short time — but rather to open up your understanding to the invasiveness of these spirits (and there are many!) to help you understand what we are battling in these transitional days before the thousand year reign begins.

The Spirit of Rejection has contaminated the lives of so many believers that it is sometimes hard to calculate the damage done to their lives because of how they have reacted.   We live in a society which has become evil to degrees that none of us could have conceived in our wildest imaginations. The wickedness that has abounded in this era has so infected our nation and the world that it affects the ways in which people respond one to another. Offenses are common. People receive commentary from other that they perceive as insulting, whether real or imagined. What used to be rational, reasoned behavior has become so agenda-driven that many (and this is more than evident in the political realm) have become blinded by their own self-imposed positions.

One of the biggest doors that people have opened up in their lives is rejection. This is a spirit that is part of the family of The Fear of Death, and a companion to The Fear of Man. It has many tenets to it and manifests in different ways. That door can open in a person’s life if they have been mistreated by a parent during their growing up years, or experienced some traumatic event at the hands of a friend or relative.

I’ve been promising to address this subject for some time, and that time has come. In the next two or three weeks (or however long it takes me) we will address the mindset, the attitudes and the spirit that drives poverty mentality. We’ll even have some fun along the way.

When we first began this series, I had no idea it was going to expand into the study it has become. It is critical for us a sons and daughters of the Most High God, Heirs and Joint-Heirs with Jesus Christ, to understand fully and to walk in the authority that we have been given.

We started talking about the connection between worship and authority a couple weeks ago, but my rabbit trails in laying foundations sort of sidetracked things a bit. I know that sometimes it may seem like I’ve become a broken record on this subject, but there is no substitute for the realm of real, intimate worship.