Transcript
Logan Howard: Hello and welcome. I am Logan Howard, and this is From Dublin to Cleveland. This is episode 169. Brendan is not here today. He is working with men's ministry today.
Logan Howard: He has an event going on, so if you could be in prayer for him as he goes about today and tomorrow and into the weekend of, you know, serving and ministering alongside men. They're out doing... a ministry. They're kayaking and hiking and being men out in the wilderness. So be in prayer for them this weekend. But of course, I'm Logan Howard. So if you haven't joined us before, this is your first time. This is from Dublin to Cleveland. What we do is we talk about the Bible. We talk about world topics. We talk about stuff that's going on. But at the end of the day, most important thing we do here is bring honor and glory to God. And so
Logan Howard: As oh we continue to do that, what I want to talk about today is America's two hundred and fiftieth birthday.
Logan Howard: and i want to talk a little bit about what makes America special, some of the things we've gone through, and at the end here, America is not a perfect country. We have made mistakes, we have um made bad decisions, and God has has been gracious to our nation.
Logan Howard: We're not a perfect nation. We don't, as much as we think that we have a lot of good things here in America, we are not. We're not perfect. We've made a lot of mistakes through our past, but God is blessed.
Logan Howard: And so I want to share some of those things as we go through a review of history of America. 250 years. It is a long time if you're talking about a lifetime, um but in terms of the world's history, it is not a very long time in terms of other empires or other governments or other nations You think of England that has been around for almost a thousand years. You think of the Roman Empire that was around for 2,000 years. um
Logan Howard: And you think of all the other governments in China and Japan and all of these nations that have gone on for years. a lot longer time than we here in America have.
Logan Howard: And some would say, well, that's what makes you special. What makes America special? What makes it different than other nations that have lasted for longer periods of time?
Logan Howard: um We are a nation that was and is a republic, is founded a republic founded on the people ah and for the people.
Logan Howard: We elect our representatives. A lot of things that you'll hear is that we are a democracy, that democracy is we are ruled by the people. That is not true. We are a people that elect individuals who represent us.
Logan Howard: um And so we are a nation that's founded on representation. It all goes back to the beginning in 1776 where the early Americans were afraid of the British's taxes and they did not want taxation without being represented in the Congress.
Logan Howard: And so that's where we get that representation and why we desire representation. We don't have kings. As much as you want to watch the news and see all the people who claim that Trump is a king, Trump is not a king.
Logan Howard: Trump does not get to do everything that he wants to do. All you have to do is watch the news long enough. The Supreme Court will shoot something down that he wants to do. Congress will shoot to something down. That is a unique thing in the history of the world that the guy at the top doesn't just get to do everything they want to do. In the past, it's been kings. It's been tyrants. It's been all of those individuals have ruled nations across the globe.
Logan Howard: um And here in America, while we've had good presidents and bad presidents, we have not had a complete dictator or a complete king running our nation. And I think as long as the union and as long as the states stay together, i don't know that we will have one.
Logan Howard: um So um hopefully as as I go through some of this history of America that you will be able to pick up on what are the things that make America different.
Logan Howard: um And I would say the one of the biggest things that makes America different is our ability to bounce back.
Logan Howard: And you will see that as I go through some of this. So at the beginning, right, we start at the beginning, 1776. This is what we're celebrating 250 years later. the Declaration of Independence, we declared that we were independent states from Britain, that they did not have the right to tell us who and what we could do or we could how we could act, that we were separate from them. And let me tell you, it did not look good very early on. We did not win
Logan Howard: a lot of battles at this at the start. We didn't have the trained men, and there were a lot of times that it looked like it was a losing fight.
Logan Howard: um There were brief skirmishes that went well. I think the Battle of... Bunker Hill went well for the Americans in spite of an English victory, um as well as the fact that you know let the march on Lexington and Concord did not go as drastic as it could have.
Logan Howard: um However, America did not just run away with getting away from... They did not get away with getting away from Britain quickly, efficiently, or easily.
Logan Howard: um It took quite a few years of battle, um in order to even get to the point where we had a possibility to beat them. um
Logan Howard: You think back to some of the key battles of George Washington crossing the Delaware to attack at Trenton and get a victory. That was huge.
Logan Howard: um And then even even as things started to go well, there was treason, Benedict Arnold switching sides. And every time it looked the bleakest and it looked like America should just quit and give up,
Logan Howard: They didn't. And something, i would say God, was sovereign over America. So we eventually, the French join us in the Revolutionary War, and were able to break free from Britain. um But setting up a nation, this these were men who had been revolutionaries. They were rebelling against a government. Now they had to build a government.
Logan Howard: And so that was a different task. They created the Articles of Confederation, but what started to happen was they had created these, everybody was a different state. What was the point of staying together?
Logan Howard: And as time went on, they eventually had to rewrite those in order to make a constitution. You have George Washington, who's made the first president. And George Washington was a man who had high moral character.
Logan Howard: He wasn't out for claim, fame, the fact that when the war was over, Washington marched into Congress and gave up his command.
Logan Howard: If you look back on the history of any nation, you will not find people giving up their command. You will find people who will take power when power is presented to them, and he didn't want it. When they asked him to be the first president, he didn't want to be the first president.
Logan Howard: That was amazing. And then they would have had him rule for the rest of his life, but he gave up he gave up his presidency after two terms to say we don't need to have more than two years – more than two terms, more than eight years in office.
Logan Howard: He set the standard for that. And even though we have a few in our history who have broken that or have extended that, like I think of FDR, and eventually they ended up setting rules that you could only have two terms in office.
Logan Howard: So as we move forward, our nation didn't immediately just become what is today. We still struggled with slavery. We still struggled with taking away Native Americans' lands.
Logan Howard: And I, as a Christian, am not going to defend it. I'm not going to say it was right. I'm not going to say that even with God blessed through that, it wasn't the right thing to do. um And we make mistakes.
Logan Howard: People make mistakes. Countries make mistakes. Nations make mistakes. We make mistakes. And we're not perfect. So we had a the War of 1812 that the whole government gets burned down by the British. But again, America, in spite of the odds, survives and fights off British.
Logan Howard: Then we flash forward 50, 60 or so more years, and we have the Civil War, fought for um fought for the Union.
Logan Howard: And um what happened in those 50 years was a huge divide over slavery. The South thought the slaves were – that was what they – it was okay. They had to have slavery in order to keep their economy.
Logan Howard: And the North were like, no, we can't treat people this way. And there was other reasons behind it as well that were maybe not so valiant. But the Civil War didn't start off out well. You have all these states walking away and seceding from the Union because of the opinion of slavery and other such things, and he Lincoln tries to keep the Union together, and that is where we get the Civil War.
Logan Howard: and It didn't go well for the Union at the beginning, but by the end, the Union had won. um And
Logan Howard: it was supposed to be a reset. Unfortunately, Lincoln was assassinated, and some of the reconstruction was... a mess.
Logan Howard: Some of the ways that people were treated, especially the blacks and Native Americans and others, treatment was not any better. And some of the rules and stuff that got put in place, segregation laws and all of this stuff, were things that didn't get fixed for another hundred years.
Logan Howard: um things that should have been fixed right there, it didn't go away. um Then our nation, um
Logan Howard: while having been separated, learned to try to get along together and didn't fully rebuild, at least rebuild the best. As we went along, we get there in and you have us joining World War in a time when ah everybody was building up armies and building up stuff. And we joined towards the end of World War one and were able to help ah Britain and our allies defeat the Germans. Unfortunately, it didn't end with just a one world war. We eventually had the Second World War.
Logan Howard: um Which again, we had to get involved in and we lost a lot of good men fighting for the freedom of others. um We have further into the 19th century, you have some of the Vietnam War and those other war in Afghanistan and all of these different wars that maybe weren't the best and we didn't handle the best and um made mistakes on those fronts continually. We had presidents who made mistakes like Richard Nixon and not strong leaders.
Logan Howard: who stepped in to power at times as well. But every single step of the way, there's been a bounce back and an ability to um
Logan Howard: to overcome. um We have some of the um segregation and undoing of segregation and the mistreatment that blacks received and we inflicted upon them was wrong.
Logan Howard: You have mistakes and issues that we make today. We have the fights and dissension that we have between liberals and conservatives. We have all these issues, but… there's always been bounce-back ability, an overcoming ability that only comes from being founded on biblical principles, which we were back in the day.
Logan Howard: And even though as there's always the fear that we'll get away from those, that we'll get away from the religious freedom that we will start to persecute or mistreat Christians,
Logan Howard: we can rely on God. And no matter what happens with our government, no matter where our government goes in the future, God will reign forever. Um, so I want to share this poem, uh, by Johnny Cash and Johnny Cash does it a lot better than me. It's a song called the ragged old flag. Um,
Logan Howard: And it's Johnny Cash sort of in a poem-esque talking through it. And if you'd like to listen to it, I highly recommend it. In fact, that'll be my shout out of this week will be the ragged old flag by Johnny Cash. But here's how this goes. He says this. I walked through a country courthouse square.
Logan Howard: On a park bench, an old man was sitting there. I said, your old courthouse is kind of run down. He said, eh, it'll do for our old town. I said, your old flagpole has leaned a little bit, and that's a ragged old flag you got hanging on it.
Logan Howard: He said, have a seat, and I sat down. Is this the first time you've been to our little town? I said, I think it is. He said, I don't like to brag, but we're kind of proud of that ragged old flag.
Logan Howard: You see, we got a little hole in that flag there when Washington took it across the Delaware. And it got a powder burned it got powder burned the night that Francis Scott Key sat watching it, writing, Say, Can You See?
Logan Howard: And it got a bad rip in New Orleans, with Packingham and Jackson tugging at its seams. It almost fell at the Alamo, beside the Texas flag, but she waved on through.
Logan Howard: She got cut with a sword at Chancellorsville, and she got cut again at Shiloh Hill. There was Robert E. Lee, Beauregard, and Bragg. and the south wind blew hard on that rugged, ragged old flag.
Logan Howard: On Flanders Field in World War one she got a big hole from a Bertha gun. She got turned blood red in World War II. She hung limp and low a time or two. She was in Korea, Vietnam.
Logan Howard: She went where she was sent by her Uncle Sam. She waved from our ships from the briny foam, and now they've about quit waving her back here at home. In her good land here, she's been abused, she's been burned, dishonored, denied, and refused.
Logan Howard: And the government for which she stands is scandalized throughout the land. And she's getting threadbare and wearing thin, but she's in good shape for the shape she's in, because she's been through the fire before, and I believe she can take a whole lot more.
Logan Howard: So we raise her up every morning, we take her down every night, we don't let her touch the ground, and we fold her up right. On second thought, I do like to brag because I'm mighty proud of that ragged old flag.
Logan Howard: So I highly recommend you checking out that song. But America has been through a lot. And again, it's that it's that faithfulness and the blessing of God that has been on our nation for 250 years. even you know even the last years, we nine eleven were terrorist attacks and our nation is well able to withstand some of these
Logan Howard: Terrible um things that have come our way. But God god has as blessed. And while we don't know what the next 250 years of our nation holds, we don't know if we will last our nation will last 250 more years. We don't know if Christ will come in the next 250 But one of the things that I want to mention before I wrap up and get into our Bible time to end our discussion is um that what has happened here in America is is different.
Logan Howard: um We have been able to protect people's religious freedoms. ah We as Christians have been protected to the point where And we have been blessed financially to the point where we were able to send missionaries overseas. We're able to, today, now, we're able to have organizations like Bibles International that is able to translate the Bible for other nations and use local people to translate.
Logan Howard: Um, we have money to be able to bring people to America, to be able to witness to them and give them the gospel. Um, we have such freedom and ability to reach people for the gospel.
Logan Howard: There's no guarantee that that will go forever. So we have to, whether you're an American, um or you're not, we if you're Christian, we have to be about serving the Lord and growing the kingdom.
Logan Howard: um And I highly recommend donating and giving to people like Bibles International because we're bringing in the kingdom. We want to see, because we know in the Bible it talks about that every tribe, nation, and tongue will worship the Lord in heaven one day. We want to be part of bringing that in. And every nation and every person will from a new nation that has never heard the gospel before, it accepts and believes.
Logan Howard: That's one more person we get to worship with in heaven, and that's one step closer to bringing about Christ's kingdom. We want that kingdom to come. We want him to come in our time.
Logan Howard: And so America is a nation that has stood 250 years. It's an imperfect nation full of imperfect people. um god has God has and deserves to get all the glory for where America is at today.
Logan Howard: It doesn't go to us.
Logan Howard: So let me close here with our Bible passage today. So this is Psalms 33. I am reading from the NIV, for those of you who listening and wondering why yours is not the same.
Logan Howard: um And so going to pick up in verse 12. And this is...
Logan Howard: So again, this is psalm, and it's specifically focused here on Verse 12 talks about the nation, but it's talking about how we can hope in the Lord, that we can wait on him, and that he's our shield and he's our protector. It's not us. We're not the ones who save or deliver.
Logan Howard: So here's verse 12, and we're to read through verse 22, the end of the chapter. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he chose for his inheritance. From heaven the Lord looked down and sees all mankind.
Logan Howard: From his dwelling place he watches all who live on the earth. He who forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do. No king is saved by the size of his army. No warrior escapes by his great strength. A horse is a vain hope for deliverance.
Logan Howard: Despite all its great strengths, it cannot save. But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope in his unfailing love to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine.
Logan Howard: What passage here. is our shield in him our hearts rejoice for we trust in this holy name may your unfilling love be with us lord even as we put r hope in you
Logan Howard: what a passage here I mean, it kicks off right there in verse 12 about blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. And truthfully, i can't say that our nation is fully um serving the Lord, that not everybody is out there worshiping God and and living for him.
Logan Howard: it's It's not. Even in our Christian circles, it's not. But we are founded, and there's a reason why we we put on or under God. where We have to trust in Him and the people He chooses for His inheritance. God has blessed us. He has given us part of His his money and His finances. We have to be wise with what He's given us.
Logan Howard: From heaven God looks down and sees everyone. So for all of those you who listening, even if you're not an American, if you're from Ireland, if you're from Germany, if you're from China, if you're from Japan, wherever you are, God sees you today.
Logan Howard: sees you. He knows you. He knows exactly what's going on. um And you can come to know him today. from all From His doing place, He watches all who live on the earth. He forms the hearts of all who consider everything that they do. He forms the heart.
Logan Howard: He works in their hearts. So hope maybe, even while you're listening, the Holy Spirit is working on your heart right now, saying, you know, i need to put my hope in Jesus. I need to put my trust in Him.
Logan Howard: I would love to talk to you more about that, and I will explain here in a minute of how that how that can happen. You don't need me. i'm not I don't save. Christ does.
Logan Howard: It comes with putting our hope and our trust in Christ. And I know some of you will say, I've heard that before. But here's how it works.
Logan Howard: We have to put our hope, right? What is it that we hope in? The question that a lot of people ask is, if you were to die today, where would you go?
Logan Howard: some Most will say, well, I'll go to heaven. And then the response question is, why? If it's because you think you need to go to heaven because you do enough good things, you're not going to make it.
Logan Howard: Christ says over and over again, the only way to heaven is through me. No man comes to the Father except through me. Nobody gets to Jesus. Nobody gets to God or nobody gets to God through except through Jesus.
Logan Howard: We have to go through him. We have to believe in him. We have to trust in him that, first of all, that he existed, right? um He did. Jesus is an actual person.
Logan Howard: He's a living person on this earth, and he lived a perfect life. He didn't sin. Was he tempted to sin? Yes. Did he sin? No.
Logan Howard: Perfect person, lived a perfect life, and then died on a cross, taking all of our sins. um Anyone who willingly confessed or believed or trusted in Him will be saved.
Logan Howard: um And so if you believe in Him today, you believe that existed, that He's real, that He is your eternal security, that He will give you the Holy Spirit in order to live in your life, to change some of the habits and things that you don't like,
Logan Howard: or maybe the things you do like. Get the things and sins that are out of your life. um And you can do that today. All it takes is a is you're talking to him. You don't need to talk to me.
Logan Howard: can talk to God to repent of your sins, to confess of all the things you've done wrong, whatever it's whether it's things you've watched, whether things you've treated people, attitudes you've had. You can repent and believe today.
Logan Howard: um And then put your trust in him. When you're worried where your next meal is going to come from, trust God. Trust that God will take care of you and ask him.
Logan Howard: Speak to him like he's like your're you'd be talking to me. Talk to him as if he's a real person. Say out loud, Lord, I need you to provide this for me.
Logan Howard: When you're worried about situation or thing going on, talk to God about it. Run to him. People will let us down. People have let me down time and time again.
Logan Howard: God won't let you down. And he'll give you the strength to get through whatever it is that you're going through. He may not take it away, right? He might not take it away immediately. But he will give you the strength to get through hit by his spirit.
Logan Howard: We have to live by the spirit. um So he forms all the hearts. God knows all of our hearts. We can't get away from him. And if we've sinned even once, we are we are held to a stricter judgment. But God's grace came in the form of Jesus dying on the cross, taking of our sins, so that all that we have to do is rely on him, put our faith in him, put our trust in him, put our hope in him for everything.
Logan Howard: That's what he wants. Verse 16, no king is saved by the size of his army. No warrior escapes by his great strength. If you think that you're going to make it to heaven based on the fact that you have a bigger army or you're strong or you're better or you're you know more good, you're not going to make it. A horse is a vain hope for deliverance. That to me is a funny one, right?
Logan Howard: But people would hope in horses back in the day. For us, it should be tanks, right? You might have a tank. You might have a nuclear bomb shelter. That's not going to save you.
Logan Howard: Only God will.
Logan Howard: Despite all its great strength, it cannot save. But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope in his unfilling love.
Logan Howard: If you even take a step today towards God, saying, look, God, I want to know you more. I want to know you better. He will so answer that prayer. He will send the right people you need. He will take care of it.
Logan Howard: Because his eyes, his focus is on those who love him, who fear him. Not in the way that we're scared, but in the way that we are honoring to him.
Logan Howard: That we respect him. We see what all he can do, and we're like a little taken aback by it. To deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine.
Logan Howard: Where does our food come from? it comes from God. We wait and hope for the Lord.
Logan Howard: I don't know if any of you, in listening to my voice, are at a place in life where you want things to be better.
Logan Howard: Maybe you want more, you know, maybe you want what was happening before COVID. Maybe you want more connection. You just are wishing and hoping and praying that life will be better.
Logan Howard: And I'm here to tell you, in a lot of ways, life is not going to get better. Accepting Jesus Christ doesn't immediately make your life instantly better. However, we wait on that day when we'll be with Jesus forever because it will be better one day.
Logan Howard: When we're with Christ, we're with him forever, it will be better. Today might be rough. Tomorrow might be hard. The next year, two years, ten years might be the most difficult times in our lives.
Logan Howard: But we're not alone. We have a God who loves us, who will be with us, walk with us, and give us the strength that we need.
Logan Howard: That's the difference between any other religion, between any other...
Logan Howard: any other God, any other thing that you could worship, God is with you.
Logan Howard: He never leaves you nor forsakes you. And we can wait in hope for the Lord because He is our help and shield. In Him, our hearts can rejoice.
Logan Howard: If you've been looking for joy or happiness, in stuff and things, it will leave you disappointed. It's left me disappointed. I promise you, it will leave you disappointed.
Logan Howard: But if we put our faith and our joy in Christ, our hearts can rejoice in Him even when things aren't right because we know He is the one who makes things right and we will be with Him forever.
Logan Howard: For we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love be with us, Lord, even as we put our hope in you.
Logan Howard: Even as we put our trust in God, his hope will be with us. So thank you all for listening today. Thank you for giving me a little bit of your time on a holiday weekend podcast.
Logan Howard: I wanted to get this out before fourth of July so that you guys had something that you can listen to and encourage you as you're thinking through 250 years here in America.
Logan Howard: um And be thankful for the blessing that God has given us. This is this is unprecedented unprecedented freedom that we get in the states here.
Logan Howard: Um, and it's beautiful. So enjoy it while God has given it to us. Um, use it, use the opportunity to give to, missions, to give to the gospel going forth, share the gospel with people. Cause we want a nation that will stand 250 more years and we need, um,
Logan Howard: We need more people believing in Christ because Christ is the only thing that holds us together. He is our hope. So I want to encourage you all, those of you who are believers, our hope's in Christ. Those of you a little confused or who don't understand this whole Christian thing, I want to portray our hope is in God. We we don't put our hope in our finances, our money.
Logan Howard: We don't put our hope in America. um We are put our hope in God. So even if America falls tomorrow, we can have hope because God is still there.
Logan Howard: And he is still the one on the throne. We can trust him. And no matter what hard time comes, we can rely on him. So let me let me pray for us, and then i will wrap us up and send us on our way.
Logan Howard: Jesus, we thank you so much for all that you do for us. We thank you for your blessing. thank you for your heart. We thank you for your care for us. Lord, we thank you that we can put our hope in you.
Logan Howard: Lord, in a world where people walk away from you, spit in your face, they live lifestyles that are against you. Lord, we're so thankful that you still love those people.
Logan Howard: Help us to love them too. Help us to trust in your hope one day. Lord, we pray that your kingdom would come. pray that your kingdom would come quickly.
Logan Howard: We pray that we would be made right and we'd be able to enjoy our relationship with you. Lord, we pray that all of our neighbors and our friends and our relationships um that we have, that they would come to know you as their Savior as well, or that you would help us to love them and love them well, and love them well enough that we would even be bold enough to share the gospel with them.
Logan Howard: Lord, we're thankful for 250 years here in America. We know that that was that was just a gift from you. We didn't earn it.
Logan Howard: America didn't earn our right to last 250 years. It was all a gift from you.
Logan Howard: So I pray for those listening. i pray for any of those who need to come to know you as their Savior, to put their hope and trust completely in you. i pray that you would work in their heart right now as they're listening to this.
Logan Howard: And that you would save them by your righteous right hand. They would believe it and live it and love it. Because you are everything. You are the answer to what we need.
Logan Howard: Again, keep those safe who are celebrating the of July this weekend. Pray for Brendan that you would bless his ministry and that you would connect with a lot of lot of men and that these men would would grow through this through this event and that they would. take their their next steps in the faith, and that they would go and bless other others as well, that you would create leaders from this group that go to the ends of the earth to share the gospel.
Logan Howard: Again, thank you for all you do for us in Jesus' name. Amen. So, thank you all for listening, giving your time on a Friday or Saturday or holiday weekend. Again, this I hope will be a blessing to all of you who are listening and thank you for your time. Again, best way to support us is, you know, get us, get yourself a hat, get yourself a shirt.
Logan Howard: And the links will be in the description of this episode. As long as you're listening to it on Spotify or our website. ahhu Brenda and I have a lot of things we have planned for the future. Hopefully we can ah get those settled out. It's a busy life doing ministry, but it's a good life.
Logan Howard: So thank you for all for who listened today, and we'll see you all next time. Bye, friends.
