A word of encouragement and faith with a year-end appeal
By Dr. Mark Creech
Christian Action League
December 30, 2016
On December 6, 1865, just months after the Civil War ended, the thirteenth amendment outlawing slavery was ratified and became the law of the land. But that didn’t mean that every state approved the ratification of the amendment. Mississippi’s state legislature, for example, was dominated by whites bitter over the defeat of the Confederacy, and they rejected the measure. One hundred and thirty years passed before Mississippi took action. By 1995 Mississippi was the only state in the Union that had not approved the ratification of the thirteenth amendment.
Finally, on Thursday, February 16, 1995, the Mississippi Senate voted unanimously to outlaw slavery by approving the ratification of the thirteenth amendment to the United States Constitution.
Senator Hillman Frazier, a member of Mississippi’s Legislative Black Caucus, said, “I think it’s very important for us to show the world that we have put the past behind us.”
Just as there was a delay in some states ratifying an end to slavery in the United States, there is also a delay in the end of other great injustices.
Allow me to borrow a few lines from a sermon delivered by the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who said:
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice…Carlyle is right: ‘No lie can live forever’…William Cullen Bryant is right: ‘Truth crushed to earth will rise again’…James Russell Lowell is right: “Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne. Yet, that scaffold sways the future and behind the dim unknown standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.”
The Scriptures say it this way:
“Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The rough places will be made plain and the crooked places straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together” (Isaiah. 40:4-5).
It is with this confidence and faith that the Christian Action League continues its critical work into 2017.
I am absolutely convinced that one-day abortion will end.
I am absolutely convinced that one-day same-sex marriage will be abolished and God’s plan for human sexuality honored.
I am absolutely convinced that one-day drug and alcohol abuse will be matters of the past.
I could speak of other pervasive social issues that threaten our time – terrorism, church-state separation, religious liberty, euthanasia, gambling, human trafficking, pornography, and racism. This is hardly an exclusive list, but just a very small sampling. Still, the point I want to make is a simple one: Righteousness may be delayed for a time, but it cannot be ultimately denied. Christ’s kingdom is coming, and will one day hold sway over the whole world. In that day, His kingdom will make every wrong right.
In the meantime, Christians are to endeavor toward that end our Lord taught us to pray, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).
We must work to make Christ known – to strengthen others with knowledge, support, and prayers to please Him. Our efforts are focused on making earth more like heaven until the Savior arrives again to rightfully reign.
This is the objective of our work with North Carolina lawmakers, as well as many others across the state that set public policy. Legislation determines the order of the day. It works best when it reflects heaven’s order – God’s will.
Thus, the motto of the Christian Action League:
The only lasting cure for evil and injustice is
Christian Action.
Will you pray for our ministry, which is so strategic to the moral climate of our state? There is nothing more important you can do in partnering with us than to pray.
Will you also, please help us financially with a year-end gift?
Maybe your Sunday-School class, or perhaps your church, would take up a “love offering” for us?
Right now we need only $2500.00 to end this year in the black. Surely, our friends can help us with this much and more.
A secure online contribution can be made by clicking on the red “Donate” button in the right margin of the website.
You can also send your gift by mail to:
Christian Action League of North Carolina, Inc.
809 Spring Forest Road
Suite 1000
Raleigh, N.C. 27609.
Don’t dismiss this request with little thought or prayer. Your gift, no matter how small, is very important. Your prayers are imperative.
Do you remember learning as a child in school, Aesop’s great fable about the old crow out in the wilderness that was thirsty?
He hadn’t anything to drink for quite a while when he came upon a jug with water in the bottom of it. He reached into the jug to get a drink, but his beak was too short. So he started picking up pebbles one at a time and putting them in that jug. As he did the water rose and rose, until finally, the old crow was able to get a drink.
This is my understanding of the way God works – each of us dropping in his or her own little pebble – each shares what he can – and all the while the water is rising until the fullness of Christ’s kingdom has come.
So no matter what disappointing news you may read in the newspapers – no matter what the political pundits on the left are saying to the contrary – no matter whether the political climate is most inconsistent with the probability of godly ends – no matter how seemingly short our efforts in His name together may seem at times – take heart – we are winning!
It is only a matter of time before all of Christ’s enemies, everyone and everything that defies the will God, shall be made his footstool. (Hebrews. 10:12-13).
Thank you for your help, your prayers, and your many encouragements during 2016. We’re asking that you stand alongside us again in 2017.
God Bless,
Dr. Mark Creech
Executive Director