For the past twenty-nine weeks, we have dealt with this nation’s earliest founders, the covenant they made with each other, and the covenant they made with the Lord to establish a nation under God, a nation that would spread the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ around the world. We have talked about the fact that every one of the 13 colonies established the fact that their existence was due to the favor of God. The fact is that everyone of the 50 states that now exist pretty much followed the example of those first 13 colonies who began the formation of this nation.

Let's see if we can finish up with a couple of Supreme Court decisions today -- decisions, that is, that took away more of our First Amendment guarantees to religious liberties in America. One thing that I think you will find interesting in this Coffee Break is a link to Justice William Rehnquist's argument in the Wallace v. Jaffree case; and I believe that many of you will find his (lengthy, but) complete argument very interesting reading. Here's the link: http://www.belcherfoundation.org/wallace_v_jaffree_dissent.htm

I ran out of time last week to finish the story of 13-year-old Rosa Frankson, who endured persecution, beatings and torture for the sake of the Gospel. I’m getting ahead of myself in saying so, but her life and her testimony affected the whole community of Point Hope, Alaska.   After three or four days of hanging between life and death, and fading in and out of consciousness, she was awake and talking to the attending nurse. "You need to know Jesus like I do," she said. The nurse teared up, and not knowing what else to do or say, reached over and patted Rosa on the head. "You're going to be OK, Rosa."

For reasons that are perfectly understandable when you realize how much we have been contaminated with the culture and mindset of death, God’s people want to be “raptured” out of here to escape all those things that Paul experienced for the sake of the Gospel. I want to begin today with a story of a young woman who experienced much of what we have just read in II Corinthians.   Her name is Diana H. Hopefully, we will be able to have her share her experiences in person, but for today, let me give you a very brief overview of her life.

It was my intention to begin a series on Covenant today, but because of a number of ongoing discussions with different groups in the past few weeks, I felt the necessity of changing gears for the next few weeks. Most of us have grown up within the structured church world and subjected to a variety of teachings concerning “The Great Tribulation.” In fact, there is no such thing in the Word — anywhere — as “The Great Tribulation.”

Howdy, Howdy!! "I will enter His gates with thanksgiving in my heart; I will enter His gates with praise; I will say this is the day that the Lord hath made....." Right. I'm still starting the day off singing. Can't help it. This is a stupendous day! Another blessed day! A highly prosperous day! Folks that sit next to me at times wonder if I have a case of heebie-jeebies because my legs are bouncing, or my feet are tapping. I get these really strange looks from them when I tell them that I have music that pours through my spirit non-stop; and most of the time it is completely new music I've never heard before. Guess it's a product of being a praiser and worshiper.

We left off last week with the event that happened when I was in international banking and the theft that took place of all the commission monies earned by the four of us as participants.

Once again, it is important to recognize that we have been programmed by centuries of wrong thinking and a mindset woven into society that requires us to expect death – never mind the fact that Jesus canceled our appointment with death. What happens is that because of this wrong mindset and thinking permeating God’s people, Jesus gets cheated out of a people – especially a seasoned and mature people who can teach and mentor believers with Jesus’ mindset.

Let’s pick up right where we left off last week. We were talking about the revelation of Resurrection that comes in water baptism. The truth contained in this revelation is nothing short of stunning! In order to get a hold of it, however, we have to be able to shut down all of the pre-conditioning we’ve had throughout many generations.

The whole concept of being raised from the dead and walking and living in Resurrection Life is something that is more theory and mysticism in many parts of the body of Christ than reality. Most Christians still believe that death is a certainty for them and they expect to die.