One of the main purposes of this broadcast is to inform, and today I’d like to tell you about two events in which we hope you will take part.
The first is the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association’s Decision America Tour coming to the steps of the Montana Capitol next Tuesday, August 9th, at noon. For those who don’t know, Franklin Graham, son of evangelist Billy Graham, is traveling to all 50 state capitols to challenge Christians to live out their faith at home, in public and at the ballot box. It is a bold message of civic responsibility, mixed with an uncompromising Gospel message of hope and repentance. In other states, Graham has denounced the current state of our nation and its moral failings, including the continuation of abortion and the legalization of same-sex marriage. He has also decried the fact that America is being stripped of its Biblical heritage, and the fact that secularism has replaced communism as the primary threat to the nation. Through a secular lens, the future of our nation looks bleak. We are saddled with debt so large that even our great-grandchildren may not be able to pay it off. Terrorist attacks are becoming almost a daily occurrence, both here and around the world. The current administration under Barack Obama has turned our military and our schools into a vast sexual social experiment, and the two main candidates nominated to replace him are as bankrupt morally as the nation is fiscally.
On the surface, our future appears grim, but as Franklin Graham points out, our hope is where it’s always been, in the God of the universe who oversaw the founding of the nation and whose power and wisdom transcend any government we elect or any policy they may implement. We have been here before as a nation, and it was in those dark times that we turned back to God. Will we do it again? For the sake of our children and grandchildren, I certainly hope so. Please join us next Tuesday at noon on the steps of the Capitol as we pray and repent and seek God’s wisdom for the tough road ahead.
The second event is a little farther out as my wife, Jennifer, and I invite you to join us in May for our next trip to Israel. For those who have always dreamt of going, the time is now. Our trips are a little different than most. We get out of the bus and walk the land in the footsteps of Jesus and the patriarchs. In addition to visiting all of the important historical sights, we eat the food, we rub shoulders with Arabs and Jews in the market places, wade through underground water tunnels, climb the Roman ramp at Masada, and look down on Israel, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria from the top of Mt Hermon. We will also sleep in tents in a Bedouin camp in the desert, just as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob did, and we will finish our trip in neighboring Jordan at the ancient city of Petra.
This is the Bible study tour of a lifetime, and you will come away knowing that God was not only the God of Israel 4000 years ago or 2000 years ago, but He is the God of Israel today, and exciting things are happening in the Holy Land. Another idea might be to send your pastor. Recently, a pastor was given a trip to Israel as a retirement gift, and he came back broken. He said if he had gone to Israel at the beginning of his ministry, rather than at the end, his ministry would have been very different. You can find details on our website at montanafamily.org. And we hope you will join us.
