May 10, 250 years ago, was the first meeting of the 2nd Continental Congress. This gathering of patriots led to the Declaration of Independence. Today, we went over the opening prayer at the 1st convention, which was inspired by Psalm 35.

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thank you for being here. And I really mean that. Thank you. This podcast is growing every single day, every single episode. And I'm very grateful for you coming and then coming back and come back again.

And maybe there's an episode you don't like and you know what? Keep it to yourself. No, if maybe maybe you don't like the podcast episode for a day or two, but if you could check back in every couple of weeks again, like I wonder what he's up to. What was going on over there?

That'd be great too. We got to get well over 5,000 views every episode or listens every episode. And then we'll be, it's like the top 1% of podcasts or something like that. So we're there, but we just gotta be consistent

with the above anyway. That's not what matters. I just want this to keep going. I don't get paid for this, by the way. I get no money for this. If we get to a certain amount of listeners and we can get a sponsor, that'd be nice too.

I'll do it without any sponsors, but it's really once you get to the 5,000, a message that I think is important to spread. Anyway, I'm grateful you are here. I'm also grateful for the White House because they have someone on the White House staff whose job is, and I would love to talk to this guy. Who is this guy? He's in charge of making sure we are aware

of every 250th anniversary of whatever. This is the, so many 250th anniversaries of great things in our history that are coming up right now and I don't want to miss any of them. A couple weeks ago we shared the story of Paul Revere's ride. That was 250 years ago which led to the shot heard round the world. Lexington and Concord. That was April 19th, 250 years ago.

And now we were informed. I was informed by the white house that yesterday, excuse me, Saturday was the 250th anniversary of the first meeting of the second continental Congress, which ultimately led to the declaration of independence. So think about like, put yourself there the best you can, this building in Philadelphia with John Adams, Samuel Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Roger Sherman, Benjamin Franklin, oh there's Ben, Ben's here, can you believe Ben's here? John Hancock,

James Madison, John Jay, George Washington. I mean, these are our guys. These, these are, this is, this is because you get right here. How did God organize these men to be here in one place at one time with one mission's incredible. Now this was the meeting of the second continental Congress. I'm going to take a little, a little creative license here.

There was a first Continental Congress as well. That one met September 5th, 1774. And I want to read the prayer from the first Continental Congress. See a little trick I did there? This is the 250th of the second Continental. I'm gonna read from the first, but whatever. I think that bridge, I think we can cross that bridge and it's alright. This is a prayer given by the Reverend Jacob Duche of Christ Church in Philadelphia. He was inspired by Psalm 35, Psalm of David. Let me just quote the

opening three line. This is the Bible here and then we'll get to his prayer. Plead my cause O Lord with those who strive with me. Fight against those who fight against me. That's, I mean, it's right there. That's great. Help me with those who are on my side and then fight against those who fight against me. Hold a take hold of shield and buckler and stand up for my help. Also draw the spear and stop those who pursue me. Say to my soul, I am your salvation." Beautiful. That's Psalm 35. So that was the Reverend's

inspiration. I'm going to quote here from his prayer. This is the entirety of his prayer. Again, think of the scene. I got George, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson. We got all the big guns here. First Continental Congress. Oh Lord, our heavenly father, high and mighty king of kings and Lord of lords,

who dosed from thy throne behold all the dwellers on earth and reignest with power supreme and uncontrolled over all the kingdoms, empires and governments. How about that humility right from the jump? That's one of the most important secular reasons of prayer is the humility that it brings right away. King of kings, Lord of lords, you're in charge of everything. Nothing any kingdom, empire, government has ever done has not been done without you. Look down in mercy, we beseech thee,

on these our American states, who have fled to thee. I love that, that's my favorite part. Who have fled to you, from the rod of the oppressor, and thrown themselves on thy gracious protection,

desiring to be henceforth dependent only on Thee. All we want is You, God. We have run from oppression to You. To Thee have they appealed for the righteousness of their cause. To Thee do they now look up for that countenance and support which thou alone canst give. Take them therefore, heavenly Father, under thy nurturing care." What a

charge, what an amazing message. Take them therefore, heavenly Father, under thy nurturing care. Give them wisdom and counsel and valor in the field. Defeat the malicious designs of our cruel adversaries. Right, that's again, back to the Psalm, now fight against those who fight against me, right? Defeat the malicious designs of our cruel adversaries. Convince them, the enemies,

of the unrighteousness of their cause. And if they persist in their sanguine sanguinary purposes, so it's a blood of, of, of own in unerring justice, sounding in their hearts, constrain them to drop the weapons of war from their unnerved hands in the day of battle, be thou present Oh God of wisdom and direct the councils of this honorable assembly. Enable them to settle things on the best and surest foundation.

That the scene of blood may be speedily closed, that order, harmony, and peace may be effectually restored and truth and justice, religion and piety prevail and flourish amongst the people. Preserve the health of their bodies and vigor of their minds. Shower down on them and the millions they here represent such temporal blessings as thou seest expedient for them in this world and crown them with everlasting glory in the world to come. All this we ask in the name and through the merits of Jesus Christ, thy son and our Savior.

Amen. Let's go ahead and start a country. Like how awesome is that? I read Proverbs 9 yesterday. Do not correct a scoffer lest he hate you. Rebuke a wise man and he'll love you. Give instruction to a wise man and he'll be still wiser. Teach a just man and he will increase in learning. That's who we wanna be. We don't wanna be the scoffer. The scoffer is the person, Alan P. Ross,

he says, is a person who will not live by wise and moral teachings and is not content to let others do so without his cynical mocking. So it's an immoral person person and then when they see you doing the right thing they will try to take you down with them. That is a scoffer. Give wisdom to that person and they'll hate you for it. Give wisdom to the wise man and they'll love you for it. And that's what our founders wanted. They wanted wisdom, they prayed for wisdom and

more than anything they feared the Lord. Here's the next line of Proverbs 9, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. I want the wisdom. What do I do? Fear the Lord. And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. Our founders feared God. They prayed to Him. They wanted more of Him. They ran to Him. They knew that nothing was possible without His protection and guidance. And today we're not even close to that. Like at best, we've gone a long time hating God

and our culture ignoring. Maybe at best today, people think we can do it on our own, but that's not gonna work. He is the source of all good things. We can't do anything without him. Our founders knew it.

It's high time we do too. Mike Slater dot locals dot com. Transcript commercial free on the website. Mike Slater dot locals dot com. Transcript commercial free on the website. Mike Slater dot locals dot com.

We were going to talk this week about distractions in a Christian's life. But then the new American pope was elected, and I got distracted. So it actually works out perfectly and Hebrews 12:3 has never made more sense to me.

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thank you for being here. I had an intention this week to talk about distractions that we have that take us away from God. We were talking on Monday's episode about the armor of God. Ephesians 6.10 says, Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of

his might. We focused on be strong. You got to be strong, then put in the Lord and in the power of his might." And we focused on be strong. You got to be strong, then put on the armor. If you're weak and you put on the armor, that doesn't do, you gotta be strong and put on the armor. So it says, and we started to quote Dr.

uh, Martin Lloyd Jones. And he listed a bunch of ways that he believes a lot of Christians waste their strength. He said it was as if Christians received some of the available might of God, but he put it in a bucket with a bunch of holes and the water just poured out of the bucket. These distractions just sap the strength of a Christian.

And he made a list. So here's the list. Committing to too many spiritual works or things. Too much conversation, arguments, debates, wrangling, laziness, too much time in the wrong company, too much foolish talk and joking, love of money and career, big distraction. A desire for respectability and image.

An unequal yoking with an unbeliever. Ungodly entertainment. A wrong attitude towards or doubting the word of God. He said we have to walk on a knife edge in these matters. You must not become extreme on one side or the other, but you have to be watchful.

And of course, you can always tell by examining yourself whether your strength is increasing or decreasing. So I wanted to spend the week going over these different distractions, but then the Pope got named and he's from Chicago, which is crazy. And that opens up a whole new world of possibility. Like will the Pope go to a national championship basketball game? The Pope went to Villanova. Like, you know, like people Villanova are going to be insufferable about this. It's just all they're ever going to talk about. You know, the tour guide today, the tour guides like, Oh, Villanova student to teacher ratio, uh, 16 to one.

And we have three national championships and the Pope is from here. The Pope, no other school can say that. So the Pope, I think if Villanova makes it again to the national church, I mean, I think the Pope's got to go. Here's another thing that I never thought would ever, ever happen. This is a woman on Instagram, a young young lady on Instagram. She is FaceTiming her mom and brother. I'm guessing brother. And the mom

when they were younger had a relationship with Bob. Bob Prevost. Bob. Just Bob. And then Bob grew up to be a cardinal, I guess. And they're like, oh, wouldn't it be funny if Bob became the Pope? So here they It's Bob, it's Bob Remos, it's literally Bob Remos! Yes! It's literally Bob!

Mom's situation trip is the Pope of the Catholic Church!

Oh my God!

My mom will come with the Pope!

I love that so much. It's Bob, it's Bob! And mom's like, no, and then the brother's like, mom Bob? That mom's Bob? It's Bob. And mom's like, no. And then the brother is like mom, Bob, that pop mom's Bob. It's the Pope.

She dated the Pope. I mean, that's never would've thought it never would've thought it. So Chicago is a white socks fan. So the Pope got me distracted. I read Hebrews 11 and 12 this morning. This podcast is named after Hebrews 11 and 12 this morning. This podcast is named after Hebrews 11 and 12.

I thought this line from Hebrews 12 fit in pretty good with the Martin Lloyd Jones theme that we were thinking about doing. Therefore, we also, since we're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us. What a great word, ensnares. And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. So first he talks

about sin, sin that easily ensnares, but before that every weight. This is interesting because not all weights are necessarily sin, but they can distract us just the same. They can slow us down just the same. And then the word ensnare, sins which so easily ensnare. So ensnare can have a couple different translations in the Greek. Now there's four different translations.

It can mean admired, which is great because sin can look very pleasing. Ensnaring, dangerous. And I like this other translation, easily avoidable. So that Greek word can other translation easily avoidable. So that Greek word can also mean easily avoidable. So let us lay aside every weight and every sin that's easily avoidable. Just put aside these things, these dumb things. What are we even messing around with that for? But I

thought this line in Hebrews 12 fit in pretty good with the Pope being named. Hebrews 12, 3, looking unto Jesus. Charles Spurgeon in his sermon on this scripture said it would be better if we were looking into Jesus. But it says, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, often perfecter of our faith. Who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame,

and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Goodness me, we analyze every word. Often this is translated as fixing our eyes on Jesus. Looking unto Jesus, looking into Jesus, fixing our eyes on Jesus. So the Greek word here, fixing, but this whole expression Jesus, fixing our eyes on Jesus. So the Greek word here fixing, but this whole expression here fixing our eyes, the

meaning here is it's not just looking at something, it's also looking away. So it's the negative. You're intentionally actively turning away from other things and looking at this thing. So you're turning away from the distractions, and in this case people, and only looking at Jesus. So it's not just looking at, you're looking away as well. And now it's fixed. Your eyes are fixed. Can't be taken off of like Peter and it would on the water, why would Jesus and Peter

walking on the water? He didn't do do that fix your eyes on Jesus now now every time I've heard the scripture I've always focused on the fix part right fixing as opposed to looking at other things okay great today I want to emphasize the Jesus part fix your eyes on who Bob no Jesus Not anyone else. Not your wife. Not your husband. Not Moses. Not Mary. Not anyone else in the Bible. Not your pastor. Oh goodness, not your preacher. Our preacher often says that when you get baptized, you're not getting baptized into me or because of

me. You're not worshiping me. It's about Jesus. If your pastor is too big, the bigger, often the bigger, the pastor, the smaller, the Jesus. But if Jesus is big, then your pastor is right where he should be. Jesus is the author and finisher of your faith, the author and perfecter of your faith. Spurgeon wrote this.

He said, I want you, when you begin your divine life, to take care that you look to Jesus with so penetrating a gaze that your unto grows to an into. Be not only the outside of the volume of his life, but loose the seals thereof and read his

heart. Dive into the meaning of what he has done for you. Look at his enduring the cross, know what it means, and enter into the fellowship of his sufferings. Study well the sin bearing, the curse bearing, the forsaking, and the sorrow unto death. Think how the Lord Jesus came under shame for your sake and see how he rose above it all. And you must look to Jesus only. So that part's about the fixing.

It's what I usually focus on, but I wanna focus on the second part of that. Look to Jesus only, whether you know little or much. It is not your knowledge, but himself that must be your one ground of trust. You must take Jesus to be the alpha as well as the omega.

To you, his name stands at the head of the book, and it is also the amen, which closes To your experience, the scripture is true. In the beginning was the word. You begin to run when you look to Jesus.

Mike Slater dot locals dot com. Transcript commercial-free on the website Mike Slater dot locals dot com. Transcript commercial-free on the website Mike Slater dot locals dot com.

The new pope is from America. That's neat. As people search his twitter account, they're finding more insight into his politics, including a criticism of JD and his application of Ordo Amoris to illegal aliens. 

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thank you for being here. There's a new Pope. I'm not Catholic so I have no connection to this and I don't know how it all even works. But I am an American and we have our first American Pope so that's something. The Catholic Church has had 217 Popes from Italy, 16 from France, six from Germany, five from Syria, four from Greece, and then on down the list,

the last Pope was from Argentina. And finally, America is an, is a underrepresented nation in something. This guy's from Chicago, he went to Villanova, served in Peru for a long time, he's a naturalized citizen of Peru.

And that is all I've learned from his Wikipedia page so far. Now in the few hours since he's been named Pope, people have perused his Twitter account. Now I don't know how much this guy was involved in his own Twitter account. Maybe he had some interns who don't know.

But if you look at his Twitter, big lefty guy, that's not really surprising. He is from Chicago. Now, since that's not really surprising, the Cardinals who voted for the Pope of Aspen, I'm guessing it was I think it was like 108 out of 133, something like that, of these Cardinals were put in there by the last Pope, so they're gonna vote for another guy who's kind of like this. One of the tweets that this Pope, new Pope sent out, was critical of J.D. Vance. It's something

that J.D. Vance said back in January. The new Pope tweeted this on February 3rd. He said, J.D. Vance is wrong. Jesus does not ask us to rank our love for others.

Uh oh.

So what is this about? This is back January 29th. J.D. Vance did an interview. The context here is illegal aliens versus American citizens. The left, they're the ones who have compassion for illegals

at the expense of American citizens. That's the argument. That's the concern here. That's what the election was all about. And here's JD Vance speaking to that.

But there's this old school, and I think it's a very Christian concept, by the way, that you love your family and then you love your neighbor and then you love your community and then you love your fellow citizens in your own country. And then after that, you can focus and prioritize the rest of the world. A lot of the far left has completely inverted that. They seem to hate the citizens of their own country and care more about people outside

their own borders. That is no way to run a society. And I think the profound difference that Donald Trump brings to the leadership of this country is that the simple concept America first. It doesn't mean you hate anybody else. It means that you have leadership and President Trump has been very clear about this that puts the interests of American citizens first. In the same way that the British Prime Minister should

care about Brits and the French should care about the French, we have an American president who cares primarily about Americans, and that's a very welcome change.

A lot of progressive theologians, pastors, et cetera, did not like J.D. Vance for saying that. And they say, Oh, you know, how could you quote Jesus like that? We didn't quote Jesus. J.D. and then said, and I think it's a very Christian concept as well, which means it's compatible with Christian culture, not that it's an originally Christian concept. So first thing to note is we have two different spheres we're talking

about here. We're talking about the state and the role of the church. We got the role of the state and the role of the church, two different things. So that's the first point. There's another guy, his name's Heracles, Stoic philosopher. He wrote about oikosis. That's where we get the word economics. Economics means management of the home.

Oikos is home and the family in Greek. Heracles, we believe, was the first to come up with the concentric circles that we've talked about many times on this show before. And that is the self is in the middle, and then the next concentric circle out is the family, then the neighborhood, then the country, then the foreigners, the foreigner of the world.

His argument was that the natural thing is to take care of your family before others. And while Stoic said we should have greater concern for every circle beyond the next, he said that the key to the development of justice and ethical behavior is to concentrate or concern yourself first with you and your family and then you can move out. Jordan Peterson makes this point all the time as well. It's one of his central theses and one of his original messages at

least was focus on yourself before you go out and try to change the temperature of the planet, for instance. And I believe that's a Christian message as you yourself need to repent. You need to repent of your sin. Get the plank out of your own eye before you go trying to take the speck out of everyone else's, focus on you and you need to be born again. First and foremost, top priority before you go calling everyone else to repent

while you continue to live an unrepentant sin. Now, every social movement that I've ever lived through my entire life, it always concerns the outer circles of people, right? Black Lives Matter, global warming, right? The marginalized, right? It's always about these big outer circle things. And I've never lived through an era

where the main cultural impulse or calling was repentance of sin, of yourself, or as Leo Tolstoy called it, the regeneration of the inner man. Every social contagion, is a better word, that I've lived through is these outer circles of far away things and never a true focus on the self. Now, anytime there is a focus on the self in our modern world, it's all, you go girl, you're perfect just the way you are.

Everyone else is the problem. They just don't realize how wonderful you are. That's the self-help movement of the last couple of decades. And it's just as toxic. So what JD Vance is talking about here, the Latin term of it is ordo amoris, ordo amoris, ordered loves.

Lots of philosophers have talked about this. Go back to Thomas Aquinas was one of the first. And there is sight of this in the Bible. First Timothy 5.8 says, if anyone does not provide for his relatives and especially for his immediate family, there's an especially there, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. The progressive worldview is this undefined altruism and focus on the universe and love for

all of existence, oftentimes at the expense of those around you. So Thomas Aquinas, these ordered loves, ordo amoris, he says, but living a just and holy life requires one to be capable of an objective and impartial evaluation of things. To love things, that is to say, in the right order. So that you do not love what is not to be loved.

Okay, we don't want to do that. Or fail to love what should be loved. Or have a greater love for what should be loved less. Or an equal love for things that should be loved more or less or a lesser or greater love for things that should be loved equally. We're often all screwed up. There's things we should love that we don't.

There's things we don't love that we should. There's two things we love the same and we shouldn't. Or there's things we don't love the same and we're all screwed up. And Aquinas outlines the proper order. Remember the Stoics, it was self in the middle and then your family and you move out. Thomas Aquinas says, no, it's God who's in the middle. Then the self, spouse, family, extended family, community, nation, and then the world.

Augustine, he said, this, and then the world. Augustine, he said, this is true of everything created, but though it is good, it can be loved the right way or in the wrong way. In the right way, that is when the proper order is kept in the wrong way, when the order is upset.

So this is nothing new. This has been around for thousands of years. It's order versus disorder. Now, this new pope in February tweeted an article about a woman who was against what JD said, or at least JD's application of ordered loves. Now perhaps it's easier for the Pope to say, oh we should love the world because he's ahead of this this church that

has its arms in every corner of the world. So maybe that can be the Catholic church's first priority. And I would argue that the Protestant church, wherever your church is, my church has missionaries all over the world that we support and send out, and that's great. And you're called to do that.

But then there's also the role of the state. And the state should order its love. I believe as J.D. Vance has articulated it. If you're called as a Christian to go and minister to the world, great. But even that has an ordered love to it. There's no way that the Bible says to abandon your family, to go minister to people somewhere else around the world. I have a ministry field right here in my home that I need to pay attention to as well. And if we all focused more on a proper ordering of love,

then we would focus on the self and being born again and becoming a slave to Christ, slave to the Lord, where he is at the center and the highest of all order. I don't know what this Pope will do, who he will be, I don't really care. I'm concerned with your soul and mine. Let's put God in my children. Let's put God in my wife. Let's put God first. Seek first the kingdom of God. Let's pray about how the loves in our life should be properly rewarded.

Mike Slater dot locals dot com. Transcript commercial free on the website Mike Slater dot locals dot com. Transcript commercial free on the website Mike Slater dot locals dot com.