Jan. 02, 2014 @ 12:00 AM
I believe 2014 will be a defining year for our nation — one in which the progressive movement will attempt to accost the fundamental values and principles of our country in ways we’ve never even imagined.
And God is calling His people to get engaged in the fight.
Understand God has never required perfection in His people before calling them to a purpose. As with any loving father, He simply asks for our very best — our first fruits if you will — in serving Him.
I often ponder the life of Jesus and how He performed his everyday duties for his earthly father during his first 30 years before beginning his ministry.
A carpenter by trade, it’s almost certain Jesus learned his craftsman skills from his father Joseph. The custom in those days among the working class was that a trade be passed down from father to son and was often done through several generations.
I have little doubt Jesus was a master craftsman. I’d wager the work he and his father produced in their shop was widely known for its excellence in quality. Whether a table, a chair or part of an elaborate building project, I can envision him measuring and re-measuring to ensure accuracy while painstakingly cutting, fitting and molding each project to perfection!
No doubt, Jesus must have been encumbered by the same discomforts and emotions we face every day. There must have been days he certainly didn’t feel like working and felt the same “urges” to gripe and complain as the rest of us often do.
But Jesus was learning the importance of role-modeling excellence in all he set out to accomplish. He was learning that appearance profited little without an enduring structure and load-bearing foundation. His artisan training taught him the integrity of an entire structure depended upon the trueness of the first cornerstone laid.
And Jesus Christ himself would eventually become the Chief Cornerstone of the Church.
Now, some 2,000 years later, and eerily similar to those who nailed our Savior to that tree on Calvary, there are those who see Jesus and His followers as a threat to humanity and desire to “re-crucify” him by removing any reference to Christianity from public view and from any governing ideology.
At what point did God say it was acceptable for His people to idly stand by and allow the enemy to destroy the world He sent His Son to save? Does God’s Word not say, “And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men.”
Just as Jesus’ finished work as a carpenter represented the teachings of his earthly father, our work on earth represents our Heavenly Father. Jesus took 12 men and shook the world. What can Christians do today in comparison?
Make the most meaningful New Year’s resolution you could possibly make. Get the fire, get the facts and get involved in 2014.
It’s up to Christians to return Godly values and biblical principles to our nation’s government.
Ye are the light of the world.
Mark Caserta is a Cabell County resident and a regular contributor to The Herald-Dispatch editorial page.
Free State Patriot 
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