Everybody in this episode, I think you’ll be encouraged.
God provided for our nation when our soldiers were starving, Washington went to his knee.
And also when George Mueller was raising up a bunch of orphans, they had ran out of all supply.
What would God do? Stay tuned?
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Now, open your hearts to what God’s word has to say to you. Here is Jack Hibbs.
Hey guys, we’re gonna be bringing you.
Uh, I hope to be a four part, uh podcast, little mini series right now.
Kind of like the, the, maybe it’s gonna be the first of its kind for us in an ongoing series as we see fit.
And that is, um, I wanna combat uh the woke and the revisionism uh in, in, in light of God in uh, American history.
Uh, the reason why Americans and the world has heard the term American exceptionalism.
Uh, most people today, young people certainly do not know the meaning of that term.
It doesn’t mean that we’re better than anybody else.
It means that God has done things in our country that he has not done with other nations.
And that list is almost infinite if you take the time to study from the times of going back, even as far as 16 05 in my recollection with Pastor Hunt, uh in what, what would later become Virginia that said, I wanna just bring you some, just drop in no particular order.
I wanna just drop you into scenes uh in in American history. These will obviously not be exhaustive.
They’re hopefully will get you to go and research and we just checked a moment ago. Beware of Wikipedia.
Please be aware of even some of the US history sites that will question or cast doubt uh regarding things that remarkably are enshrined and granite or marble in our country that you can go.
These monuments have been there for uh decades, some uh over a century or more where these great events have happened.
Eyewitness accounts. And then you know, you click on because you want a 15 2nd answer and it tells you well, it may or may not be true that George Washington fought this battle here or said this there and it just is demonic Hath God said.
Well, it’s certainly true. Uh when it comes to American history, and I just want to bring to your attention one of those things and I’m get, I’m gonna paraphrase and draw up uh a recollection.
But if you want to know more, I encourage you to go, uh I encourage you to go to books like this.
Uh Miracles In American History by Susie Federer. I encourage you to go to anything by William Federer.
Uh her husband William Feder. Look at Ame uh American Minute with William Feder.
American Minute, great history lessons, all documented.
But one thing I wanna just bring to your attention is something that is so inspiring and I see it every day in my office in my office behind me is a, a replica of the oil painting uh which um was given to me.
I originally purchased it uh at Mount Vernon and then I wound up uh actually exchanging that one out because um a great, great grandson, I believe Feinberg is the uh original painter of that.
Um The, the great great grandson gave me um a very rare uh collector’s item of that painting that’s in my office.
So I, I know a lot of people have the painting.
I’ve been blessed to uh have an actual Feinberg uh give me that. And so what, what is that?
It’s that famous posture of George Washington kneeling beside his horse in prayer in the snow.
The first thing that a critic is gonna ask is, well, how do we know there’s no selfie taken?
There was no pictures and photography. How do we know that they really happened?
And then the prayer is recorded. Did you know that in history?
The prayer of Washington is recorded when I say recorded, I mean, written down, how do we know that?
Well, because there were several, certainly one guy for sure could have been up to three guys who for either mischief.
We’re not sure exactly where Isaac Potts stood on.
Was he a spy by the British infiltrating our camp at Valley Forge Pennsylvania?
Or was it that Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, the awesome uh soldier uh commander and pastor overheard this or, or was it um, a another individual whose name I forget right now.
Anyway, by, by either one or three witnesses, this is what happened, Valley Forge Pennsylvania where I encourage you to go visit because it’s epic.
It’s just preserved perfectly is where the US troops had been.
Um, I wanna say bed down for the winter, which is what you had to do in those days, but they had, they had no beds.
Um, they were gathered together, we had listen, our troops had no shoes, they were, they were worn out because of that feat of the soldiers were being frozen, turning black.
Many of them were amputated we were losing in Valley Forge in the middle of winter with no war.
We’re just waiting for spring to come. We were losing 12 guys a day.
12 soldiers were dying per day at Valley Forge because of being frozen to death or starvation.
Valley Forge is where they began also to add to their own problem and desperation.
They began to boil the leather of some of their, um, gunpowder packs, their soles of their shoes.
They began to boil leather and drink the broth and chew on the leather.
Have you ever tried to chew on leather?
But when you’re starving to death, that’s what you do, then they wound up taking their knives and they went and they carved bark off of trees to eat the bark.
And Washington was so concerned and so daily in prayer that at a time of profound grief, he rode a little distance away from this horrible sight.
And uh Washington prayed this epic prayer asking God to perform a miracle and it is understood and it’s recorded that it was the spirit of liberty that kept those alive who were alive.
It was the love of liberty that kept them going. The it was.
And as Washington by the way, uh went around the camp, he would encourage them about freedom about liberty.
Listen to this. We are we in America know nothing about this level of depth of commitment, integrity and of endurance.
Washington encouraged the troops that their cause that they were fighting for and dying for was worthy that it was a noble cause to bring and to fight for liberty and for the birth of a nation.
You think about that?
If you don’t have Christ in your life, what do you have worth living for?
And there are those good people who know history, they understand this stuff really?
Well, they understand that America is worth dying for.
I would hope that a Canadian thinks and believes that Canada is worth dying for.
I certainly know for a fact that the Israelis know and believe that Israel is worth fighting for and dying for.
But the remarkable thing is that Washington went around and one of the things that he said is what I’m quoting to you here now is he told the soldiers fear God and trust in the Lord.
Our cause is great. And so he kept drilling that into their hearts into their minds.
And so I wanna encourage you that you’re talk, we’re talking about a group of fighters, soldiers, citizen.
So soldiers mind you, this is not a standing army. These are farmers.
If you read um, about our American history and the American continental army, you know that they were farmers and did you know that they would, they would come and fight for a few months and then go back back to their home and harvest the fields and plant seed and then leave and go back to the battle.
And Washington had to juggle he was, he was, he and his uh, brigadier generals were the full time guys.
The other guys fighting the battles were uh, citizen soldiers, minute men.
And, uh, so they weren’t even professionals or like the British called their own regulars.
The British had literal full time paid warriors. Well, we had nothing but farmers.
Uh, and, but the amazing thing is is that those farmers, those farmers had to hunt for their food.
They shot rabbit, they shot pheasant. Um, They had to shoot.
So the age now this is the, this is the age of those guys at Valley Forge.
But it really, it does speak regarding almost all of our battles.
The ages of our soldiers were somewhere between 2060. That was the bulk.
But there are some outliers in the book of 17 76 written by David mccullough.
He points out that some of the uh soldiers were 14 years old, 14 years old.
And yet it was observed by the British command that these kids were better marksmen than his regulars.
And the answer for that was because the American citizen had to hunt for his food.
He had to use his gun daily, uh, to sustain and to provide meat for his family.
Thus, with a very, very difficult instrument to use. That is the Flintlock or pan fired, uh, musket.
Well, huge long barrel rifle, uh I say rifle, that’s not, that’s not exactly true. At that moment.
The barrel was not yet rifled.
They, it was just pure bore musket ball where they would shoot this ball out of a long musket.
And the aim was horrible. It wasn’t until later that they started rifling the barrels.
So that would cause the, the bullet to, to spiral and be more accurate.
These kids all the way up to men of 60 years of age, they were able to pick off, uh, British soldiers at a huge alarming rate to the British regulars because one American citizen soldier was extremely skilled because he knew his rifle or he knew his musket and he knew how to use it.
And so in light of all this stuff, we were outnumbered, we were out armed.
But God gave like David, Lord, David prayed, give me skill, give me skill uh in battle.
And God did that to our founding uh soldiers for our founding nation.
And uh as they were starving to death in Valley Forge, it seemed like it was completely over.
Um at that time, by the way, keep this in mind, Washington with the troops at Valley Forge, Valley Forge, they’re about 25 ish miles away from Philadelphia, which is now under British control.
In fact, the liberty bell that is now on display in Philadelphia at the Independence Hall.
The liberty bell was taken down from uh from the hall and it was carted away almost 100 miles, 80 miles away.
I believe it is to Allentown Pennsylvania to hide the liberty bell. Isn’t that awesome?
And they hold it, they, they held it, uh, hit it in the basement of the first Zion church in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
They think about that, uh, who’s gonna go through the effort to save a big bronze bell?
Well, this, it’s not that it’s a bell. Do you know what was written on the bell? Leviticus?
25 verse 10, proclaim liberty throughout all of the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof.
And that bell was our symbol of freedom, but we were dying.
And what happened was this is awesome.
Look this up, the troops were starving to death and it is most certain that we are going to now lose any hope of freedom and liberty.
And I believe it’s two or even 2.5 months ahead of spawning season.
And I’m trying to remember the name of the fish.
The water was shallow, the spawning season of these fish that would move in from the shoals of the Atlantic up river to spawn.
I wanna say shed, I’m not a fisherman. So I don’t know. It doesn’t matter.
Look it up. Shockingly, a miracle happened.
The fish began to show up in advance and they swam.
Oh my gosh, one of our uh chad, I was correct.
I’m 65.5 years old and I haven’t to totally lost my mind yet.
This shed showed up and it, it was uh written by eyewitness accounts that they were so numerous, a number that you could walk, you could use, you could walk across the fish on the, on the river because the river was so shallow.
And what happened? I think, I believe, I know God sent them two months ahead of schedule because those soldiers that were dying began to feast on shad and they were strengthened and restrengthened for the battle.
And the rest is history as the saying goes.
but my friends listen, that’s what makes America exceptional. It’s not us. It’s what God does.
And what’s amazing is that how in the world does a citizen army defeat the greatest power on earth?
Ok. That would be like that would be like Cuba destroying the United States, defeating the US entire military forces.
Our citizen soldiers defeated the biggest war machine on earth.
You gotta remember at the time of 17 75 17 75 London was considered to be the largest city in the world of a population of 1 million people.
And it was also uh understood to be the capital of the earth. London.
Did you know that at the time of our independence, Britain Britannia ruled the waves.
They ruled the oceans from the, from the uh from the bay of Bengal, uh to Canada, to uh North America, uh India, uh the, the sun, listen, the sun never set on the British Empire.
That’s how big it was. And the United States colonial forces lost more battles.
To the British then we won. So how did we win? Makes no sense.
The victory at Yorktown was an absolute miraculous victory.
By the way, these are places that are national parks today. You can go to visit those spots.
You should take your kids on a field trip and go and play.
You can actually go there and, and the, the, the readouts are still there. They’ve never changed.
They’re not, they, they didn’t remake them, the readouts where they set up their a cannon fire and all of that you can still go there.
In fact, just down the street in Yorktown is Thomas Nelson’s house.
You know, Nelson’s uh Thomas Nelson publishing Thomas Nelson, his house, many of their homes still stand in his house.
There’s cannonballs still stuck in the walls in New York Town.
We lose more battles but we win the war. Does that sound familiar Christian?
How many battles do you and I lose you and I lose battles all the time.
But the Bible says that the war has already been determined. We fight our battles as believers every day.
Could be, depression, could be, finances, could be relational challenges, could be uh the drama and the terror that divorce brings to a family.
Uh It could be life and death situations.
Uh It could be just you standing for righteousness and being hated by your community, including your own family.
You’ve been isolated and cut off whatever it might be if you notice the battles that we have so many times, we fail at them.
And yet, according to the Bible, it says that the war has already been determined.
Washington, unless Scott told him something that we didn’t know. Washington never flinched, he never gave up, he never quit.
He felt like it and you can read his own work, writings, by the way, I’ve read them many times.
He was so severely depressed that he wrote uh his um his family members, uh Lu Lu Washington and others about how he had never been more depressed and despairing of his life than at this moment he said, and if I would have known our plight and dilemma that when congress commissioned me, I would have denied the challenge.
He said, if I had to do it all over again at that moment of depression, I never would have said yes to be in general.
Do you ever feel like that? Of course we do.
But Washington hung in there because listen, you know, 5 a.m. every morning Washington read his scriptures and prayed according to Washington.
And then when time allowed it, if they were not engaged in battle, he did it again at 10 a.m. George Washington, incredible man of God, a man of destiny.
That’s why he’s called the father of our nation. There’s nobody like him ever.
Um And if we were writing the Bible today, Washington would no doubt be included.
But what I wanna leave you guys with is the fact that you may be in your Valley Fort situation where ish is hopeless.
I don’t even know how we’re gonna eat tonight.
I wanna remind you that all of these moments of God’s divine intervention in our lives were to read them, friend, student mom, dad were to read this stuff to, to give us courage.
Because I’m reminded right now of another group of people who are starving in Germany.
There was an orphanage and that orphanage was dependent upon the donations of people in that town.
And without the donations of the people in that town, these orphans would have nothing.
And George Mueller, have you ever heard of George Mueller?
George Mueller was the overseer of that orphanage and they had run out of milk, they had run out of bread and Mueller didn’t know what to do except, but to ask God for help.
And all the boys sat down at the table think of the faith this takes Muhlenberg didn’t say a word to the guys to the kids that there was no food or milk.
And Muhlenberg a famous painting, by the way, some of you have this in like uh the daily bread uh devotions.
There’s a picture of a man praying like this sideways like this.
It’s George Mueller and he’s praying and he’s thanking God for the food and there’s no food.
The little boys are there praying and they don’t know nothing and why would he burden them when they can’t do a thing about it anyway.
But pray and Mueller beg said, God, we thank you for this food today in Jesus name. Amen.
And if I do remember the story correctly, if not, I stand corrected while he was praying or shortly after he prayed, there’s a knock at the door and there was a, there was a uh uh wagon driver and he said the wheel of my wagon has broken off and I’m en route to deliver this morning’s bread to market.
If I don’t unload this bread, it’s gonna rot. Can you use it?
They brought it in, the guy left, they’re eating bread.
Muhlenberg goes to the door.
I’m sorry, Mueller goes to the door, opens it up and there’s a driver of a cart and it was a milk cart and it had broken down.
And he said, Mr Mueller, this milk’s gonna boil if I can’t unload it now and have it be used and they had milk.
God’s intervention. God will intervene in our lives.
Listen, almost always, not according to our timing, almost always not when we expect.
In fact, almost always when we have lost heart or almost we, we’ve come to the end of it all.
And we say things like I have no reason to live anymore.
The cart arrives, the milk comes, the bread is on the plate, the fish swim and you’re saved.
Look to God to provide for all of your needs.
We’ll come back with more of these really moments in American history that we can bring to your attention.
But by all means, study them yourself. And so listen, please, please, you can thank us, really listen.
Keep your money. You can thank us by subscribing, you can thank us by uh sharing this with others.
Hit, subscribe, share with others. And by all means, remember this, we believe strongly here that it’s time for you and I to live out what we believe in because it’s time for real life, it’s time for authenticity.
God is waiting to move in your life. God bless you.
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