Because of the content of the last lesson, I have decided to deviate from prophecy for this next lesson. It follows the last lesson perfectly, in that the leaders should be following the Lord - especially in these end times.

We have many things going on in our time, some good, some bad, some subversive, some encouraging. What is it, that engines the amazing diversity of the world in which we live? Why do things develop as they do, and what determines the way those developments impact upon us?

The Bible foretells that in the prophetic days now breaking upon us, there will arise a certain central theme that you and I would do well to address. It is one of the components that makes the world what it is today, and it will have a telling influence upon what the world will finally become.

That component is leadership! Everyone agrees that leadership is tremendously important. Someone talked about leadership in the army and said, "One good general is worth 100,000 men." That is very probably true in certain battles. The failure of leadership can produce tragic consequences.

The Bible foretells that at the end of the age, a massive failure of leadership will indeed come about. The rulers of the world will launch their armies upon an atrocious military campaign.

"Why do the nations rage, and the peoples imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed. . .," Psalm 2:1-2.

Can you imagine the leaders of the world actually taking counsel against God? They will sit down and cogitate about what they are going to do, in their campaign to rid the world of God! Rulers who are against God produce terrible results in the life of a nation. In fact, the third chapter of the Book of Isaiah tells us that one of the signs of Divine judgment is a failure of leadership. God says He will take out of the body politic:

"The captain of fifty, and the honorable man, and the counselor, and the skillful craftsman, and the eloquent orator. And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them. . . As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. . .," Isaiah 3:3-4, 12.

So it is that leadership will finally come apart as we move toward the end of the age. Is there something we can do to prevent that, or at least slow the process of decay which eats at the foundations of our society? Let's think about leadership, and what it is that produces quality leaders. The character of a leader is a very important consideration. The Bible speaks about several characteristics of leadership, which are in keeping with the Divine plan.

1. Recognize Divine Ordination

First of all, a leader must recognize his Divine ordination. A leader is not just a willy-nilly guy who exists in mid-air, but he has a basis for his claim to leadership. According to the Bible, even in the political sphere, the authority of a leader is ordained of God. Listen to what the Scripture says concerning this.

"Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God; the powers that be are ordained of God," Romans 13:1.

"Do you mean to tell me that the President, the King, the Commissioner, is ordained of God?" Yes, I mean to say that every person who has the opportunity to influence the course of somebody's life, had better realize that he does so by the permission of God. That makes him answerable to God for his actions. When you leave God out of it, the consequences are terrible indeed.

Solzhenitzen was asked at one time, "How come Russia turned into such a terrible place? How come the churches were turned into horse stables, or torn down? Why were 60 million people killed under that awful economy?" He had a very short explanation. He said, "They had forgotten God."

You never heard a Communist leader say, "I'm here because God put me here." These people were strong and powerful atheists. They resented God. When you leave God out of the equation, leadership fails. Watch that as it relates to your nation these days. Just as a person is ordained to the ministry, as pastor of a church, even so a leader in the political realm is ordained by God. "The powers that be are ordained of God." Remind every leader of that, because it is one of the pillars of the conduct of a good society.

2. Be Just

Secondly, a leader must be just. Now there's so much that could be said about this matter of "just" and "justice." The Old Testament talks about this, and puts it well when it says:

"Now these are the last words of David. David, the son of Jesse, said, and the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel, said, The Spirit of the Lord spoke by me, and his word was in my tongue. The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spoke to me, He who ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God," 2 Samuel 23:1-3.

David realized he was saying something so awesome here, that he first asserted the credentials by which he spoke: the son of Jesse, the King of Israel, the man who's been through these things, who spoke with the authority of God. He reported that God ordains a principle: "He who ruleth over men must be just." That means he must be fair. He must be honest. He must have a degree of righteousness about him. He must have character. He must be able to evenly balance the needs and demands of opposing forces. To be just is a very difficult thing. It takes all the help of God in order to bring it to pass. "He who ruleth over men must be just." That's the second absolutely necessary quality of a leader. May God give us a leader like that in our time.!

3. Realize That We Live in a Fallen World

Now there's a third characteristic of a leader: he must realize that we live in a fallen world. It is necessary to recognize the doctrine of original sin, if one is to understand the true nature of life. The Bible says:

"For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God," Romans 3:23.

That has very real implications in the life of a culture, and determines how a leader must deal with that culture. One of the very important verses in the Bible is the one in Romans Chapter 5 which says:

"Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned," Romans 5:12.

The Book of Romans expands on this by saying:

". . .There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one," Romans 3:10-12.

Original sin affects how many people? Everybody. How many people have sinned? Everyone. So sin lies at the door of every house and every office and every agency. Sin characterizes the world.

The person who would rule must remember that. People cannot be trusted just on their own recognizance. As one politician well put it, you must chain them down with the shackles of the Constitution. You must absolutely demand that they know what the rules are, and they stay with these rules. They cannot be allowed to freely practice deceit, which, if left unfettered, will bring to pass the ruin of society.

People are sinners. That sinful disposition can easily run amuck through the halls of government, and must be compensated for by being sandbagged out of influence! The shackles of a Constitution, the absolute laws we must obey, provide a good place to start. I would not be against every school child memorizing the ten commandments, learning that the Bible says, "Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor." Bearing false witness - if that were diligently avoided by everybody, it would make a tremendous difference in the way the government is run.

What are the rules by which we are to govern society? It isn't "Que sera, sera, whatever will be, will be." The rules are the law of God. It is the law of God that inhibits sinful activity. Even though some may resent that law, it requires people to chart a course that makes the government dependable.

So, keep in mind the doctrine of original sin, if you would produce a result that is salutary within society. Remember, we live in a sinful world. To forget that is to totally misunderstand life.

4. Be a Good Steward of Other People's Money

With whose money does a leader deal? The answer is, other people's money. The Bible gives an indication of what it means to be a good steward. Every person in this world is required to be responsible, accountable, to somebody. He is required to be a good steward. Again, the Scripture is very clear on this:

". . .Who, then, is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give him his portion of food in due season? Blessed is that steward whom his lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing." Luke 13:42-43.

Here is presented the picture of a man who has been called away to a far country. While he's away, he's got to have someone take care of his property. The person who takes care of the property of another, who's put in trust of that property, is called a steward. While his master is away, he's got to be honest and responsible, even when nobody is looking. That good stewardship is what keeps it all going.

It occurs to me that to be a good steward was well understood back in the New Testament days. There were no phones. There were no fax machines. There were no good ways to communicate instantly. You couldn't climb on a plane, and go back to your native land overnight to check up on something. When you were gone, you were gone. The person who took care of your property had to do it on the basis of good instructions, and must be totally trustworthy. That was a good steward.

The Bible says that a faithful and just steward is a very wonderful thing. My, does that ever apply to a government official! When a government official is elected, such as the President of the United States, the people in effect say, "We are going to put a $1-1/2 trillion budget in your hands. Please do not disappoint us."

The person in charge of that money must use it to accomplish the will of the people and even to a higher sense, the will of God. If he doesn't, the whole thing starts to come unglued. When you live in a nation in which the people, in increasing numbers, have lost confidence in their government, and do not think that the government knows what it is doing financially, then there are hard days to come.

I think of our land again for just a moment. We are in such bad shape financially, that we owe over $5-1/2 trillion. We have to borrow $1 billion a day to keep up the pretense of prosperity that we talk about. That difficult financial situation is getting worse, not better, with every day that passes. It is getting so bad that we don't talk about the "debt" any more, we just talk about the "deficit." The deficit is how much deeper we go in debt during the course of a give day or week or month or year. But that deficit figure sounds smaller that the debt figure, so the debt figure has become very obscure. It is over $5-1/2 trillion. The interest alone is fantastic, and we are approaching the place where we won't be able to handle the interest payments any more.

What happens then? Financial anarchy is a possibility. Many a revolution has taken place because of irresponsible leadership within a nation. When people live lives of dissipation, and dimish the country's resources until nothing remains, anarchy ensues. If you are going to have a government that makes it in a world like this, the people in charge must be good stewards.

5. Must Not Seek Human Glory

We've got too many people walking around today's world saying, "I'm the greatest, I'm the most. I can be the master of not only my destiny, but yours as well." The consequences of seeking after human glory and personal aggrandizement, are really terrible. That attitude is called pride. The Bible says:

"Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall," Proverbs 16:18.

Pride can be very ruinous. The Bible gives us many accounts of how this works. One of them that is especially striking is found in the 12th chapter of the Book of Acts.

"And upon a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne, and made an oration unto them. And the people gave a shout, saying, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man. And immediately an angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory; and he was eaten of worms and died. But the word of God grew and multiplied," Acts 12:21-24.

Isn't that interesting? This man believed the people when they said, "He is a god. He speaks like other than a human being." In his heart of hearts, he said, "Yes. They are correct." That agreement before the people, taking unto himself glory that he did not deserve, cost him his life.

I wonder how many suvivors there would be in the top echelons of many a nation, if those people in the positions of leadership actually said, "Yes. The admiration of the people is something I deserve. I am the greatest. I am the most. Look me over, I can handle anything." Watch out for the terrible erosion of pride. Believing the pride that comes to you is a great mistake. Rather, we must be the kind of people that gives the glory to God.

Now that comes just from a common-sense realization, does it not? Who enables us to be thoughtful? Who enables our brains to work? Who is it that makes it possible for us to live? In whom do we live and have our being? What's the answer to that question? The answer is that God makes it possible. So the Bible says:

"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths," Proverbs 3:5-6

I'm very happy for the books that are coming out these days, giving us quotes of some of the founders of the United States. I recommend them to you. I'm impressed again and again, with the way these quotation books report what George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and others said about government and about themselves. The spiritual note is sounded again and again: we cannot possibly have a government that works, unless God is in the midst of it. We must therefore trust God and not ourselves. We have a nation under God, because it won't work unless God is running things.

That was the spirit of America back in the beginning. Is that the case now? I hope so. But unless we learn to give the glory to God, we cannot possibly prosper as a nation.

Alexis de Tocqueville came to the United States and said, "I've looked over America amd it is a great nation. It is not great because of its economics. It's not great because of its vast agriculture. It's not great because of its interesting and brilliant people. It is great because its churches are filled with individuals singing the praises of God, and acknowledging the fact that we must give the glory to Him, or we cannot survive as a nation. That is the key to American greatness.

Is that true in America today? That should leave us very, very thoughtful about the true power that makes a nation go. When the Bible says "The powers that be are ordained of God," it really means it. That means, of course, as we have already said, that the ruler must be loyal to God. But that also states a principle. The principle is that the only foundation on which a nation can be built is that of God.

"For other foundations can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ," 1 Corinthians 3:11.

Thinking about America for just a moment, there is something that has constantly impressed me. In a very real sense, this nation was built out of thin air, was it not? It was built out of people whose initial call, initial concern, was the desire to worship God according to the dictates of their conscience. They came because here they could recognize God in a way that was being obscured back in Europe.

And so, they said, "We want to live our lives in fidelity to God." It's that attitude, fidelity to God, that coalesced and made a nation come to pass. It didn't happen because of some great architectural plan. It happened because of these fragments of truth that were stated as we said, in midair. They called democracy a vast experience. They called government of the people, by the people, for the people, a new thing on the face of the earth. But it succeeded, because it succeeded under God.

We are going to move into a great future if that principle obtains. If it does not, I fear for the future of this blessed land of ours. We need to pray for those in authority over us.

In our lifetimes, we have seen a number of nations disappear. They were here one day, but then they were gone the next. Then we've seen some new nations come into being. The changes in Africa and Southeast Asia and Latin America have been fascinating things to watch. For the most part, the changes in nations have been the product of distress, revolution, and weakened governments. Their leaders were supposed to be in charge, but they didn't tend to business. As a result, the nations came apart and drowned in resentment and revolution.

We don't want that to happen to our nation, do we? We need to think about that, because the Prophetic Word tells us that as we move toward the end of the age, there will be a failure of leadership among the nations of the world. Leaders will abandon their posts, and they will turn over their responsibility to a dreadful character called the Antichrist. I would like to quote a passage of Scripture, that gives us fair warning about one of the signs of the judgment of God upon a nation, namely that the leadership class comes apart.

"For, behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water, The mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient, The captain of fifty, and the honorable man, and the counselor, and the skillful craftsman, and the eloquent orator. And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them. And the people shall be oppressed, every one after another, and every one by his neighbor; the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honorable. When a man shall take hold of his brother of the house of his father, saying, Thou hast clothing; be thou our ruler, and let this ruin be under thy hand. In that day shall he swear, saying, I will not be an healer; for in my house is neither bread nor clothing. Make me not a ruler of the people. For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen, because their tongue and their doings are against theLord, to provoke the eyes of his glory. . . As for my people, children are their oppressors, and the women rule over them. O my people, they who lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths," Isaiah 3:1-8, 12.

That happened to the nation of Israel. In judgment for turning their backs on God, He took away anybody who knew anything about leadership, and left the nation wandering and leaderless. It must have been a terrible time. They grabbed anybody that was wearing clothes and said, "You be our leader, because you look semi-respectable."

When leadership falls into the hands of incompetent or unworthy people, it's a sign of Divine judgment. Because this has happened to so many nations, we need to take the time to think about it, and on the way, consider the things the Bible says a leader must do to avert such disaster.

1. Must Operate Under Divine Authority

We've established that a leader is subject to Divine authority. "The powers that be are ordained of God" (Romans 13:1). But a leader must also operate under Divine authority. A leader must have a sense of that authority: a sense that what he does, he does by virtue of the choice of God. In so doing, he must then seek to be certain that his actions are in keeping with the will of God.

One doesn't have to think hard before he finds many nations of the world which are illustrations of the opposite. Take, for instance, Scotland. I've done a little thinking, and a little reading, about Scotland. Scotland came under the leadership of Mary, Queen of Scots. She had become the Queen of France at a very young age. She then went to Scotland and became the leader there, at the request of her brother James. But the problem was, she never understood the nature of true authority, and so her reign was marked by weakness. She made pronouncements that carried no weight. The real power in England was a man by the name of John Knox, the founder of the Presbyterian Church. He was listened to by the people, and set the policy for almost everything that happened. Knox thundered his edicts based upon the authority of the Word of God, declaring what the people should believe, and what course they should follow.

The final result was that Mary Queen of Scots lost the leadership of Scotlnd, fled for her life, and was finally executed by her cousin Elizabeth down in England. It was a very sad story, because she appeared to have very little sense of Divine authority going for her.

When you're going to lead an organization, or, for that matter, anything else, you have to have people who will accept a commission and carry it out, as if they were serving God. We are always serving God, no matter what it is we think we can do. That kind of leader will bring some very good things to pass. A sense of authority is a natural result of realizing that we are called by God to do a certain thing.

By the way, a similar situation works out in the life of a church, and in many other things. Leadership is critical. Leadership that is Divine led produces a beautiful result like the sunshine after rain. But when it isn't led of God, it produces terrible confusion, and maybe even the death of that church, organization, or nation.

Schools, colleges, seminaries, Bible institutes and training institutions of every kind, are facing the fact that here is a scarcity of leadership coming upon our nation as of now. Where are the people who can handle the challenge of tomorrow? I've been in many conversations with people who are responsible for some well-known institutions today, who have said, "We see nothing but irresponsibility round about. Where will we get good leaders for tomorrow?"

Well, we won't get them until we have leaders who know what leadership is! The debilitating lack of leadership we see now, will become increasingly severe as we move to the end of the age. True leaders are at a premium.

2. Must Not Move Above the Law

In recent times, we have seen many leader come upon the scene who scoffed at some inconvenient law, and said, "That doesn't apply to me." A leader must not believe he is above the law. It's interesting how the Bible refers to the coming evil ruler known as the Antichrist. He is described in quite a number of ways, but one is that he is called "the lawless one." He will be the literal embodiment of all who came before, who said, "The law does not apply to me. The law is an instrument made to be broken. The law is something I can use as a club upon other people, but it doesn't apply to me."

When the leadership of any nation says, "The law doesn't matter, except as a device to control the lives of others from my point of view," that nation is in very, very serious trouble indeed. When a leader operates under the principle that the law doesn't apply to him, he creates a situation that will lead to ruin. The Antichrist will do this. He will place himself so far above the law, that he will kill millions of people without flinching, in order to become the master of everything. With no law higher than he, the lawless one will be the source of great tragedy in the world of the Last Days.

They showed a series of films not long ago, about Hitler's escalation to power. It was very interesting to have a picture of what he did, and then a description of what was in his mind. This man never thought of himself as being subject to the will of the people, or to any law that would moderate his conduct. Instead, he saw himself as ready and able and having a duty to circumvent the law. "The Third Reich will last for a thousand years; we are the master race, better than anybody, and I will prove it." The mandates of Germany at that time were laughable to him.

Finally, he took the law into his own hands, and in his own mind, he became the master of everything. You know the final result. Twenty million people died in the agony of the defeat of Germany, and its attempted conquest of Russia.

Think of Russia for just a moment. Russia experienced a revolution, and threw away every concept of law up until that time. Lenin, and then Stalin, and their successors took over the country. They killed anybody who disagreed with them. As a result, 60 million people died. Russia turned into a shambles. It fell apart into a million pieces, and it's in terrible shape today.

Look at a man by the name of Saddam Hussein. It was reported in a major magazine not long ago, that somebody disagreed with him in a board meeting. He stood up, took a 9mm automatic off his hip, and shot this person six times. Then he sat down to continue the meeting, as if nothing happened. That's megalomania, friend. That's what happens when a person moves above the law. Please keep that in mind, and never allow the ruler of any nation in which you have a vote, or control over, to place himself above the law. Lawlessness, which is anarchy, can destroy anything. The Bible says lawlessness will become rampant during the days of the Antichrist. Don't let that happen where you are.

3. Must Uphold the First Purpose of Government: Defense

I've been very concerned about this generation in the midst of which I live. We remember World War I. That was before my time, but we remember it. We remember World War II (which was still before my time). I've done some very extensive reading on these wars (with the help of my husband), and the political situation that obtained in between them. I've found what I think to be a principle, and that it, when a war isn't going on, people say, "There is going to be peace. There will be no more problems, nothing left to worry about." And so, their defense mechanism is allowed to melt down and down and down.

This nation of ours, and many other nations with it, were sucked into a war for which we were largely unprepared, because we had not faced our first responsibility, national defense. There's a liberal mindset that grows in a nation like America. That liberal mind says, "Don't spend anything more on defense, but rather, spend it on social welfare." However, if defense fails, everything else is gone, including social welfare. Weakness leads to war and loss. There are wars that didn't even have to happen, but they did, because nations were caught unprepared for war. Had they been prepared, war might have been averted, saving millions of lives.

The first purpose of a government, bar everything else, is defense. If the nation does not survive, what else is worth doing? The defense of a nation is critical. Again and again in the life of the nation of Israel, the Bible shows how this was the case. It is an important lesson to learn in our time as well.

Look at Britain. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain came back from Munich and said, "There will be peace in our time." Within a month, everything was drowning in the new results that went into World War II. Britain almost lost, and might have, were it not for the intervention of the United States. Britain was paying the price of inattention to defending that island. The war was almost lost, but not quite. Remember, the defense of a nation is the government's first responsibility. Other things may come after that, but only after we have assured that the nation will survive long enough to implement them.

The survival of a nation is a very important thing, and one of the great reasons for survival is reliable leadership. When that slips away, it is very possible for the whole nation to disappear.

As we move toward the end of the age, national responsibility will erode and slip away. Leaders will become irresponsible, allowing the aggressions of the Antichrist to succeed in taking over the world. As we have suggested.

"The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take coinsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us," Psalm 2:2-3

The Bible warns that one day, perhaps very soon, the leaders of the world will reject the call of God and abandon His Divine principles. We must stand against that. Already, we live in the era of weakening social structures. We cannot allow that to continue until our nation falls apart.

4. Must Not Give Himself Over to Personal Indulgence

When an ocean of money comes to a person, he is very tempted to say, "This is mine. I deserve it." In fact, they invented, back in the Middle Ages, a doctrine that they called the Divine right of kings, which I never understood and certainly do not believe. As a result, the kings became immensely wealthy. Their royal families drove around the streets in golden chariots, and later on, in beautiful automobiles. Finally, the populace looked at them and said, "They don't deserve that, but I do."

That happened, for instance, in Russia. The Czar lived in such incredible personal indulgence, that the irate people finally said, "We can't stand this any more. We and our children are starving, while he lives amidst such lavish waste. What shall we do?

It was the self-indulgence of the Czar and his wife that produced the jealousy and envy on the part of the people, which engendered a revolution. That revolution consequently attached itself to an ideology called Communism. Communism was not the motivation for the Russian revolution. They just thought of that later, so the Communist leaders could live in even greater splendor than did the Czar and his wife and the royal family that they had overthrown.

Personal indulgence and ostentatious living has many times produced the ruin of a nation. A ruler must not do this. He must operate in a way that will engender the approval of people. He must not permit himself as being above them economically, supposedly deserving to be stupendously wealthy, while his subjects live in abject poverty.

By the way, this should also be true in the life of a church. The Pastor is the spiritual leader, that we admit, and he should be taken care of. But when the pastor lives in ostentatious fashion, rather than like the majority of the people, that could pose a very serious problem in the life of the church.

So a person who would be a leader must not give himself over to personal indulgence. He must be thought of, not as feathering his own nest, but rather, of doing those things that would profit the people.

5. Must Guard the Nation's Morals

What is the basis of life? Is it economic? No.

". . .a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth," Luke 12:15.

Is a nation's life finally political? No. These things vary, and at best are human creations. Is a nation's life finally academic, intellectual? Is it just people going to a lot of schools that make a nation strong? No. The basis of life is moral. It is more important to be good than to be great. That's what the Bible teaches.

The Bible reminds us that man is a sinner. Therefore, it reminds us that leadership must close the door to sin, frustrate it as much as possible, and encourage moral life - that is, obedience to the moral law of God. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Thou shalt not covet. That's what the Bible says.

To violate these laws, called the Decalogue, under God, is to ruin a nation. How can you keep a society together, if there is not a law under which it operates? When vast immorality is allowed to take over, that spells trouble for the days to come.

I think of this blessed land of ours, and I am partly amused but mostly chagrined over the fact that we decry terrible things like teenage pregnancy and drug addiction and so on. But then at the same time, we have television all day long and half the night, that is a hard driving promotion for the most egregious immorality that anyone ever thought of. It includes the advocacy of extra-marital affairs, homosexuality, and drug addiction. When a nation not only excuses but promotes these things for profit, that nation is not long for this world.

I'm concerned about this nation of ours, and about the nations of Western civilization. The faith we profess to have, must finally show itself in the work of improving a nation. That work needs to be done as never before in our time. Again may I remind us, that leadership will fail, as we move toward the end of the age. The kings of the earth will conspire against God. There will be a shortage of leadership, and people who are able to command situations will not be around. Don't let that happen now. It may happen in a generation to come, but we must fight to keep it from happening in ours. Even now, we must pray for those in authority over us, and we must believe the Word of God when it announces that God empowers people for leadership, and makes them able to take over these commanding positions.

Put these principles down. Think about any political servant that you may know, about people occupying elected office, about those who are commissioned to be responsible for something, and regard them in this light. Are they really responsible? Remember, the basis of life is moral. When we lose a moral base, we lose it all. Let's not have that happen in our generation.

Let Christ be Your Savior, and Ruler of Your Life

To know Jesus Christ as personal Savior - that is the greatest thing in life. Do you know Him? Have you said that wonderful "Yes" to Christ and believed the Gospel? Have you become a Christian? Would you like to become a Christian? Would you like to become a Christian today? You can, by receiving Christ. ". . .for as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the children of God. . ." (John 1:12). Take the time to pray this prayer, and believe God to make salvation real in your heart.

"Heavenly Father, I know that I'm a sinner, and that Jesus died for my sins on the cross and rose again. I want now to trust Him as my personal Savior. Please come and live in my heart. I pray in Jesus' Name, Amen."