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A DEFINITION OF COLONIALISM
Be watchful and strengthen the things that remain...(Revelation 3:2)
Colonialism is the extension of a nation's sovereignty over territory beyond its borders by the establishment of either settler or exploitation colonies in which indigenous populations are directly ruled, displaced, or exterminated. Colonizing nations generally dominate the resources, labor, and markets of the colonial territory, and may also impose socio-cultural, religious, and linguistic structures on the indigenous population.
Through colonization, America has become a great nation that has flourished, prospered and grown with rapid expansion. Because people were willing to leave their native habitat, and to venture out by faith in God, He has led them about and instructed them as the "apple of His eye." I came from a home with such a knowledge of God as that. colonial families including ours, are very big. Colonial families had large families with 7, 9, 12 children or more. As the children grew it provided not only a powerful family of adults in the community, but the families options with so many healthy workers was not as limited as it is today. In those early centuries, families, including grandparents, aunts and uncles owned large estates with hundreds of acres and worked together on these farms and plantations.
From it's early colonial beginnings, America has increased to the point that relatively few people live on farms hundreds of miles apart anymore. Their work takes them miles from home and family members. Young children attend daycare facilities. Nevertheless, colonialism has not become a passe concept. The nation remains in a constant state of flux! Many individuals have family members living in other nations, causing them to migrate at various times so that they can visit or live near them. Or they continue to live at opposite ends of the country or of the world, from which they write or communicate with family members, by telephone or email so they can remain in contact.
AMERICA'S COLONIAL BEGINNINGS
The United States began its history as a colonial possession of Great Britain and confronted two other colonial powers in contiguous areas during its infancy and contested France and Spain for control of that territory. After the American Revolution, gradually the European powers were expelled, and the new United States expanded its influence by absorbing the contiguous territories until it controlled the area it occupies today. (Later, Russia was one of those powers expelled.) A debate has ensued concerning whether in this process the United States became a colonial power by its absorption of these areas. This discourse continues, but by the traditional definitions of colonialism, the American experience is quite different from that which characterized the European colonial tradition, as it was not until the late nineteenth century that the United States entered the race for noncontiguous colonies.
Civilization in later times has placed individuals in closer proximity one another with the ability to travel, and this has been of great benefit, in this ability to build and shape nations, to the glory of God. But it's been many years since families for the mosst part have enjoyed the closeness of America's early years.
War is another facet of colonialism. Warring nations, have always utilized colonization, to infiltrate the nation they wish to conquer. They simply begin to transplant service workers, plain clothes military, including those of the foreign alliances they wish to utilize, and whatever else is needed. This builds, till the change-over occurs. Frequently, in such a case, the signs are visible about one, that this is taking place. It takes all the citizens of a nation to care. We all must be watchful and prayerful, that America's "Statue of Liberty," with Emma Lazarus beautiful poem of "the huddled masses yearning to breathe free, accomodates those whose motives are in line with that which is right, and that it does not become a "Trojan Horse," for our enemies to ride to victory!
Men and women are employed by companies who hire coworkers of varying ethnicity, cultural traditions, skills and religious beliefs. In public schools, children are confronted by others who don't always have the same appearance, language, or values they do. Children observe that outwardly, many people appear moral, compassionate, and in many ways to have qualities that are of note.
RELIGIOUS BELIEFS IN COLONIAL AMERICA
God is the Source, Giver, and Sustainer of all life (Acts 17:25,28; Job 33:4; Genesis 1:30, 2:7; Psalm 36:9; John 1:3,4). When asked which commandment wasthe greatest, Jesus taught the SHEMA. Hear O Israel, the Lord thy God is one Lord, and Him only shalt thou serve. (Deut 6:4) He is the God that I call Father. In Europe this belief flourished in the Reformation times, particularly among the Quakers and French Camisards. See: Joseph Anointing
There is only one God (Deuteronomy 6:4). He is the Creator of heaven and earth, and of all living beings. He has revealed Himself to humanity as the Father (Creator), in the Son (Savior), and as the Holy Ghost (indwelling Spirit).
. . . Father
God is a Spirit (John 4:24). He is the Eternal One, the Creator of all things, and the Father of all humanity by creation.
He is the First and the Last, and beside Him there is no God (Isaiah 44:6).
There was no God formed before Him; neither shall there be after Him (Isaiah 43:10).
. . . Son
Jesus is the Son of God according to the flesh (Romans l:3) and the very God Himself according to the Spirit (Matthew 1 :23). Jesus is the Christ (Matthew 16:16); the Creator of all things (Colossians 1:16-17); God with us (Matthew 1:23); God made flesh (John 1:1-14); God manifested in the flesh (I Timothy 3:16; He which was, which is, and which is to come, the Almighty (Revelation 1:8); the mighty God, everlasting Father, and Prince of peace (Isaiah 9:6).
Jesus Himself testified of His identity as God when He said, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father" (John 14:7-11) and "I and my Father are one" (John 10:30).
It took shedding of blood for the remission of the sins of the world (Hebrews 9:22), but God the Father was a Spirit and had no blood to shed. Thus He prepared a body of flesh and blood (Hebrews 10:5) and came to earth as a man in order to save us for in Isaiah 43:11 He said, "Beside me there is no Saviour." When He came in flesh the angels sang, "For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:11).
. . . Holy Ghost
The Holy Ghost is not a third person in the Godhead, but rather the Spirit of God (the Creator), the Spirit of the resurrected Christ. The Holy Ghost comes to dwell in the hearts and lives of everyone who believes and obeys the gospel, as the Comforter, Sustainer, and Keeper (John 14:16-26; Romans 8:9-11).
In the days of William Penn, it is evident that God poured out His Spirit and many believers possessed an understanding of the Godhead as "one" not three. They baptized into Christ as the apostles learned from the Lord Himself, and the scriptures command in Acts 2:38, Acts 8:16, Acts 10:46-48 and Acts 19:5. The biblical basis is this: "In whom dwells all the fulness of the Godhead in bodily form!"
Puritanism remained dominant in New England through around 1650, when religious extremism took over in many communities. In other colonies, like Virginia, the Church of England was the legal faith of the colony. Immigration to the colonies increased after 1690, bringing individuals with diverse spiritual beliefs, including Lutherans, Presbyterians, Methodists, Jews, and Quakers.
Pennsylvania was the land of Quakers. Founded by William Penn, the colony grew out of the city of brotherly love, Philadelphia. Protestants of all stripes, particularly those of Pietistic background, found a welcome in Penn's Woods. This included the sectarian Pietists such as Mennonites, the Amish, Moravians, and Dunkers or Brethren. So-called Churchly Pietists like Lutherans.
Dr. Francis Daniel Pastorius brought significant numbers of German Protestants to Pennsylvania, founding Germantown. In 1688, he authored a declaration condemning slaveholding. This was the first such protest in the colonies against slavery in American History.Massachusetts was settled by Puritans and Separatist Pilgrims. Following religious upheavals in France, Huguenots or French Calvinists fled to North America seeking a safe haven to practice their faith. Revolutionary War hero Paul Revere came out of the Huguenot tradition. Scandinavian Lutherans settled in Delaware while Protestant Scots-Irish found their way into the back country of the Carolinas.
Contrary to many stereotypes about the Puritans, they were not repressed, dull prudes. Although their laws regarding adultery and any sexual relationships outside of marriage were severe, they valued the intimate relationship between man and wife. They also did not prohibit alcohol, although they did not value the quality of drunkenness.
Usually the day of worship consisted of two services: one in the morning, one in the afternoon. In spite of the fact that the death rate-because of malaria, yellow fever, and other diseases-was extremely high. Religious neglect was nearly as prevalent in Maryland and it was in Virginia. Tobacco was a booming business.
In the Chesapeake Bay colony of Virginia, the official religion was the Church of England. Sunday attendance was mandatory by everyone in the colony, whether they subscribed to Anglicanism or not. Quakers Leaders of the Jamestown settlement endeavored to establish regular church-going, but geographical dispersal to plant tobacco soon made this goal impossible. The colony was vexed when the Quaker belief in pacifism clashed with the need to defend itself from Indian attacks.
Churchgoing soon became an occasional, matter-of-fact duty rather than the central preoccupation of settlers lives-as it was in Puritan New England.
In an effort to save money, these early settlements often shared a traveling preacher rather than pay for a full-time pastor.
Church discipline quickly disappeared because church members-rather than face the grief of public discipline-left for another church.
Church of England priest Morgan Godwin visited Virginia in 1684 and was shocked at the neglect of Christianity there.
ESTABLISHING A GOOD WORK ETHIC
In 1875, the parents of my grandmother Amy Christensen, were transplanted, when Anders and Mette Marie Christensen were invited by the government of New Zealand to move to New Zealand from Denmark as colonists. She was born in Taratahi, New Zealand, where her parents lived in Wairarapa, and helped to tame the 70 Mile Bush. Whatever difficulties she'd endured in life, had made her extremely versatile, resilient, and adaptable. Her father Anders Christensen and his family emigrated to America after her mother died in the 1890's. My family would descrine being trained to be disciplined and diligent workers by their parents because laziness is a sin. Children began apprenticeship training for a life time of work as a tradesman at a very early age. Obtaining food wasn't as easy because they didn't have access to the super markets of today. Men worked as farmers, blacksmiths, coopers, silversmiths, pewterers, brickmakers, gunsmiths, weavers, basketmakers, milliners, tinsmiths, merchants, tanners, tailors and printer-binders.
Most of the food was hunted, grown in the family garden, fished for or came from the animals on the farm. They got up early to do chores like sweeping, feeding the chickens, milking cows, watering horses, running errands, picking berries, gathering peas, onions, turnips, carrots, vegetables, and spices from the garden, and taking eggs from the chickens. Women helped cook breakfast, a midday meal, and dinner.
Clothing was made from wool. Sheep were sheared. Shears, were used to cut off the wool. Then the wool was scoured to clean it. A Grandma may have carded the wool to fluff it. You would take a small amount of wool and put it between a paddle with a bunch of little hooks on it then you pull one paddle across the other paddle. After this was done it was ready to spin it on the family spinning wheel.
PUBLIC EDUCATION
For the first two hundred years in American history, from the mid-1600s to the mid-1800s, public schools as we know them to day were virtually non-existent. The educational needs of America were met by parents and church. Education in early Colonial America began in the home at the mother's knee, ending in the cornfield or barn by the child's father's side. The task of teaching reading fell to the mother, and with paper in short supply, she would trace the letters of the alphabet in the ashes and dust by the fireplace. The child learned the alphabet and then how to sound out words. When a book was finally placed in the child's hands, it was usually the Bible. As many passages were familiar to him, having heard them at church or at family devotions, he would soon master the skill of reading. The Bible was supplemented by other literature such as Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan, The New England Primer, and Isaac Watt's Divine Songs. From volumes like these, our founding fathers and their generation learned the values that laid the foundation for free enterprise. In Against Idleness and Mischief, for example, they learned individual responsibility before God in the realm of work and learning.
In these early centuries, America produced several generations of highly skilled and literate men and women who laid the foundation for a nation dedicated to the principles of freedom and self-government.
The private system of education in which our forefathers were educated included home, school, church, voluntary associations such as library companies and philosophical societies, circulating libraries, apprenticeships, and private study. It was a system supported primarily by those who bought the services of education, and by private benefactors. All was done without compulsion. Although there was a veneer of government involvement in some colonies, such as in Puritan Massachusetts, early American education was essentially based on the principle of voluntarism.
At school children were taught to read, write, and do some arithmetic. It was important to learn to read because then we can read the bible, write letters and use your understanding of math to make wise purchases, buy property, and in general, buy, sell and keep track of ones finances. A colonial town was exceptional if it had a school because most towns didn't have one. Parents followed the biblical mandate to teach their children at home, and to raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
A schoolhouse consisted of one room and a teacher. The room was a place where the teacher taught various age levels simultaneously. In winter they would eat inside and in the summer they ate outside. A wooden stove heated the room and students may have each brought a log to keep the building heated. Ages ranged from six to twelve. Much of learning consisted of repetition and recitation to aid in remembering the lessons. They learned from a hornbook which looks like a wooden paddle with a paper attached to it with letters, numbers and a verse from the bible.
GROWING UP IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST
In many ways I was exceptionally blessed as a child growing up in the Pacific Northwest, living with my mother in my our apartment on Queen Anne Hill, although with our mothers employment opportunity in Seattle, we were quite isolated from the rest of the family. I attended grade school at Warren Avenue School on lower Queen Anne. The school had a program for special-ed children for blind, deaf, cerebral palsey, and other handicaps, and my teachers would encourage me to spend my extra time serving in constructive ways.
I would hurry to get school assignments done, so my teachers would allow me to help the special-ed teachers with the children, in their portables. Many of these kids were my friends, such as Sonja Utley, a boy named Clark, and a blind child named Alcoa in the special ed classes at my gradeschool. I liked to help out by arriving at school early and waiting for the taxi's with the physically challenged children to arrive, so I could walk them to school and help them to their seats. Or I'd work with them in their studies. These were happy years, and I had some favorite things that I did after school. I consider it of great benefit that my gradeschool was gifted with such a program, because I learned a lot.
I liked doing errands for Grandma Amy like going to the store for "day old bread" at the Sun Beam Bakery, reading comics on the rack at Bartell Pharmacy, mowing the lawn for 50 cents for an old Scandinavian Grandma on the street below.
I'd stop by KOMO tv, on the way home from school, and watch the filming of the Captain Puget Show, or Stan Boreson, and his dog NoMoe, or hike down to the Animal Shelter on Elliot Avenue, and try to cheer up the dogs and cats incarcerated there. More than once, I saved my bus fare by walking, and "sprung one or two" and our apartment always had two or three pets. On Sundays my sister and I attended Sunday School at the United Evangelical Brethren church on the corner a block or so from our home. It was at a church sponsored summer camp, that I gave my life to Jesus Christ, as a child. Why did we go there? It was close, and it was something to do. Our mother didn't go. In those years, I was not even aware that Church of the Brethren was a church with a connection to the family, from way back.
As a child, my teacher encourged me to read Zane Grey, Nancy Drew, fairy tale books from every nation and other good literature that the Queen Anne Public Library held. My 4th grade teacher especially suggested that I read western novels. Zane Grey had a Danish mother, like I did. By the time I was 12, I was in a private convent school for a year, enjoying my classes in academic studies, and the arts. I remember I got an "A" in Washington State History, that year.
With America and other nations to which men and women emigrated being the "melting pot" that they are, things like family values, traditions, and indiginous crafts are often lost, if there are no family members to pass them on to.
THE TOOLS WITH WHICH WE BUILD
We are the workmen God uses to build the Temple of God, made up of living stones. When Grandmother Amy Laughlin came to stay with us, she brought more than her suitcase. She brought to our home the family culture from generations past. Through conversation, she could make the distant aunts, uncles, cousins seem closer than ever before Grandmother told stories of my Grandfather who died before I was born, but whom I'd always wanted to know. She taught us about the world around us in her own way and from her own perspective, from the European perspective and her life in the South Pacific, as she had lived and experienced it in New Zealand. She spoke with an accent that was a composite of Danish, New Zealand and Canadian, with all the proverbs and terminology.
With her came her collection of Danish and United Kingdom or New Zealand recipes, of foods we'd never eaten. These meal items sometimes came with a history or geography lesson, such as "Eat your oatmeal, it's good for you, and the Scottish soldiers survived on it during the Crimean War." Or "because the children of other countries are starving."
We were not quite sure how us eating our oatmeal or cornmeal mush would benefit the children of other countries, but long after I was grown, I decided it must have been so that we could serve Christ, in regard to spreading the Gospel.
Grandma Amy made marvellous home made soups, which tasted nothing like their store-bought counterparts, that our busy working mother purchased at the local grocer and heated in a pot! But I still love Campbell's Tomato Soup, and we sure ate a lot of it.
My grandmother mixed up batches of buttery Danish cinnamon rolls from scratch filled with chopped walnuts and plump raisins. When I came home they were rising on the stovetop. She planted a garden in the yard, and we had carrots coming out of our ears. She taught me to make boston brown bread, that she made with molasses, cornmeal, and raisins and steamed in a pan of water in old tin cans, she washed and saved and covered with parchment paper which didn't beome soggy as fast, and she tied the paper on the tops with string. Here is how she did it! She would mix:
- 1 1/2 cups of graham flour,
- 1 cup cornmeal,
- 1/2 cup rye flour,
- 1/2 cup rolled oats,
- 6 tsp Baking powder,
- 1 tsp salt.
Then she added 1 1/2 cup milk and 1 cup of molasses, beating well. This was put into clean tin cans, covered with parchment paper, and secured with string or kitchen twine. Place cans in a pot on a rack in a large soup kettle, add boiling water till 1/2 way up the can. Cover kettle tightly. Bring water to boil, and simmer for 2 hours. Remove bread from cans and serve with butter or cream cheese.
An early riser, I never saw Grandma Amy "sleeping in." At night when she got ready for bed, she'd wear her flannel nightgown and robe, and pull the hair-pins from her hair and that long silvery hair of hers would cascade down her back. I thought that she looked so beautiful. After she'd wash her hair, I'd say: "Grandma, can I brush your hair?" And she'd tell me to "brush it 100 strokes." And if I brushed my own hair 100 strokes, my hair would shine!
.
Spry for her age, she didn't sit in front of the television entertaining herself. I was allowed to watch the healing evangelists such as Kathryn Kuhlman pray for the sick, and this was so incredibly meaningful to me. My family was interested in studying not only the scriptures, but the lives of men and women that sold out to God. My grandmother cared who I associated with, and where I hung out as a child. My family knew the power of influences. Grandma knew the parents of the children I knew in the neighborhood, and supervised my activities after chores were done. She made certain that my time was organized with learning skills such as knitting and crocheting.
In Wairarapa where she was born, she'd herded cows and little brothers and sisters. Living with her daughters, helping to care for her grandchildren, was a part of her life, that she chose to do, did well, and enjoyed. My grandmother Amy brought to our family life in Seattle, her talents and abilities which she used to the glory of God. Grandma Amy quickly set to work sewing drapes for our Mother's apartment from Polynesian bark-cloth with exotic leaves and flowers on them, and bringing paradise to us. At least we thought it was paradise, there in our inner city apartment in the concrete jungle of Seattle. Our mother's apartment living room had Polynesian and Asian art, and she loved exotic flowers, such as Bird of Paradise or Anthurium, and would purchase these fresh and place vases of them on our coffee table 
Animal rights activists would cringe in horror at my mother walking into Kress's Ten Cents Store, and purchasing us the painted turtle with the floral decal which lived in a bowl with a plastic palm tree on our coffee table, happily devouring dried flies from the local pet store, basking in the shade of his oasis and providing hours of entertainment for my little sister and I.
The lifestyle for wwhich I am so thankful, was unique in that it was infused with God's dealings with us as a family unity. It was exceptional that before any of my family died all had opportunity to accept Christ, and to know that not only would they live a blessedlife here, but that they would spend eternity with Him.
With my father an attorney, and my mother for many years working in the legal field, there was opportunity to be witnesses for Christ and influences with our faith in Him. Grandmother spent quiet hours telling me stories and watching me crochet pot holders from colorful cotton crochet thread, or knit scarves from remnant yarn. It was my grandmother who patiently taught me to make my first quilt, from some blocks of embroidered a vintage "Sun Bonnet Sue pattern, whose skirts were made of various printed fabric scraps. With the excellent dress-making skills learned from her own Danish mother, Mette Marie Christensen, who lived and died and is buried in New Zealand, my Grandma Amy made our mother lovely silk dresses from exotic prints, from exotic fabrics.
THE OATHES OF THE CLANS
Grandma Amy shared the Laughlin and Christensen family stories passed down throughout the generations, such as that of the family tartans in her Great-Grandmother Mariane Lane's (husband's mother's) trunk. One was the Graham, tartan, because of the Marquess de Graham, in our lineage, through our grandfather, William Andrew Laughlin. It was my mother who taught me that the clan motto is: Ne oublie - "Do not forget". The other was that of Clan Lachlan or LachLainn, whose motto is Fortis Et Fidus which means Strong and Faithful (trusty), terms that accurately describe the history of our clan. Mottos were like a corporate vow that was made, and represent "the clan or family honour."
Grandmother Laughlin told us that Grandfather's family were also Montroses, and that one of my gr-grandmother's was Elinore Montrose, a descendant of Lady Harriet Montrose, whose husband was knighted with the title "St. George," making her Lady Harriet St. George. I'd listen attentively to her, not sure what it was all about. What was she trying to say to me, with regard to these ancestors? She knew her time was short, and she was passing the torch, by sharing the things that helped her to be who she was. She spoke of things like courage of conviction, bravery in the face of tremendous difficulty, fidelity, compassion, faith in God. Grandmother stayed with us through 1966, when I was 16, and sometime later returned to Canada where she died in 1975.
Later I grew through those teen years into a young woman, married, divorced, went through a lot of trials. I was 26 before I opened a bible, but when I did, I read scriptural passages she'd shared with me, and I became born again. After she returned to Canada, I'd often think my mother sounded like an instant repeat of the things Grandma had to say. Sometimes I wondered why my mother seemed so "old-fashioned?" What was her life like in Canada, before she emigrated to the states?
Why did she and Grandma make reference to these ancestors of ours, and their illustrious deeds? We hear it in a measure in Apostle Paul's messages, when He does not hesitate to state that he was of the tribe of Benjamin, and loved his kindred after the flesh. Paul said: I myself am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham. (Romans 11:1)
Why didn't Paul simply say he was "of Christ?" Because there were certain character qualities to be brought out in the lives of his ancestor in a conversation. He didn't hesitate to identify negative qualities in a nationality, if he felt the information was of importance. (Titus 1:12) There were links of common bond to those he spoke. There was a deep desire to identify with his audience.
COMING FROM GOOD STOCK
From a family of soup makers, with that kettle of stock simmering on the burner, I know what spoils the broth, and that good soup depends on the quality of the stock. Our family were bible believing, trusting in Jesus Christ, who was the root and offspring of David, as our Great God, and Saviour. Grandma would encourage her grand-daughters to do well, using scripture. She also said: "You are of good stock!" She wanted us to trust in Jesus Christ, but she felt that in living one's faith in Him, the evidence would be seen in one's life. She wanted us to emmulate positive traits in our peoples lives such as being industrious, merciful and compassionate. We learn these things from scripture, from seeing God's nature in Christ, yes...But we also identify with those qualities in more contemporary times, when we recognize them. This observation of character doesn't stand as evidence of conversion to Christ." Only biblical conversion does that. Apostle Peter said: Repent, be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Family trees are filled with everything from kings to cow thieves. National identities can be a genuine heritage in our lives, if we will remember ancestors as God's word teaches us to. The lives and events of ancestors spoken of in scripture were important in that "these things which happened to them, were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come." (1 Cor. 10:11) We can be admonished in such a way by our own ancestors. If their lives were lived to the glory of God, this is good. If not, it is still a lesson of how not to live. Descendents will remember the deeds done in a family long after individuals are gone. The question is "How do you want to be remembered?" It is good to be a godly influence whose life is a testimony of the power and reality of Jesus Christ!
God's eyes are looking upon all the families of the earth.
ETHNICITY & THE FOREVER FAMILY
The Apostle Paul looked for how to use this ethnicity of his to the glory of God, stating quite clearly that he was of the "stock of Israel," of the tribe of Benjamin. In Romans 9:1f, he tells us the truth is Christ, stating that he has great continual sorrow or heaviness of heart, for his brethren "according to the flesh," who are Israelites...For God has said that "Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed we had been made like Sodom and Gomorrah." The tribe of Benjamin from which Paul sprang, were not all believers in Messiah. Paul wanted all Israel to be saved! (Romans 11:26)
When Paul counted all things but loss for Christ, he did not throw away his tribal or clan identity. (Phil. 3:5-6) His life was immersed in the identity of Jesus Christ! Rather he found ethnicity an invaluable asset in winning others to Christ. He found that his own connection or link to the tribe of Benjamin, to being of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Israel, was of vital importance in wining the more to Christ! (1 Cor. 9:19-23)
But Paul did not have this passion for the salvation of Jews alone. God made him the Apostle to the Gentiles. He said: "For it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by His grace to reveal His Son in Me." (Galatians 1:15) We see that God wants us to be a manifestation of His shekinah glory. His very presence! Paul was a man with God's own heart--of "not being willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance--" (2 Peter 3:9) and this gave him tremendous insight into the lives of those who were not his ethnic group, and he preached God's word without fear or favor.
When the Lord returns to earth again, at His Second Coming, as the bible says He will, "He will come with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him. Even so, Amen. (Revelation 1:7) So what's a kindred? Vine's Expository Dictionary tells us that the Greek word SUNGENES primarily denotes that which is congenital, natural, inate. It's from two words, SUN, meaning "with, and GENOS, which means "race." It's referring to all the "kinfolk!" All those families, tribes, clans, are going to look into the eastern sky and the sky will light up with the brilliance of a billion suns, and the families of the earth shall wail, because of Jesus, and the fact that they did not respond to His salvation message found in the gospel, while there was time for them to.
Just in our marriage, we have clans, tribes and families, and we love them in Christ, and want for every one of them to know Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord. What a gathering there will be in that day, when we our Saviour comes for His own, and around His throne, are those He's redeemed from every kindred, tongue, people and nation. (Rev. 5:9-10)
Jesus Christ warned of traditions which were of no value, for they made the truth of God's word of no effect. (Matt. 15:3,Mark 7:13,Col. 2:8) But within Paul's ethnicity, there were plenty of "traditions," that were a bridge to expressing his faith in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Chrisr. There are these "bridges" in your ethnicity as well.
When in our 50's God blessed our family with another daughter. That year we visited Scotland and the quaint little town of Montrose. We enjoyed visiting Brechin, Forfarshire and Montrose, which are prominent in our family history, and sharing the gospel in this area the White Rose spoke of, to her children and grandchildren.
The Duke of Montrose, was our ancestor. Mum, who wrote some facts related to this on small scraps of paper, said that she remembers two etchings on the wall in the family home in Chatham. One was of the "Roundheads," and the other was an etcching which made reference to "Poor Uncle Montrose." (The Duke of Montrose) This pity shows that the revelation the artist had for the Marquis de Graham, was somewhat limited! For Jesus Christ receives all repentant sinners who call upon His name. And whosoever shall call upon His name shall be saved. During the Great Civil War that took place in the British Isles during the seventeenth century, James Graham, 5th Earl and 1st Marquis of Montrose, fought for Charles I as a ingenious commander and gained his reputation as Europe's leading general. Montrose, commanding a small force, having defeated seven Covenant armies during 1644 to 1645, briefly reconquered Scotland for the King. Unfortunately, the tide of war turned against the royalist forces and Montrose left Scotland on the King's orders, only to return after the Charles I's execution to wage war against the roundheads under the banner of Charles II. He was captured after the Battle of Carbisdale in 1650 and was taken to Edinburgh, where he wrote his famous poem on the eve of his execution. He was then hanged and his body quartered and sent to different regions of the country for display. He died valiently however, with a prayer to the Lord Jesus Christ upon his lips.
James Graham, first Marquis of Montrose, was executed on 21st May 1650 at the Market Cross of Edinburgh. Eyewitnesses recorded the dignity and grace of his bearing, and the generosity of his last words penned in his cell as he awaited his :Let them bestow on ev'ry airt a limb; Open all my veins, that I may swim To Thee my Saviour, in that crimson lake; Then place my pur-boil'd head upon a stake; Scatter my ashes, throw them in the air; Lord (since Thou know'st where all these atoms are) I'm hopeful, once Thou'll recollect my dust, And confident Thou'lt raise me with the just."
Upon Charles II being restored to the throne, the General Montrose remains were given a magnificent state burial.
Because of the religious persecutions, and wars, many Americans are children of gentry. The Danes were a diligent, hard working folk. The Scotch-Irish side of our family, are at times listed in genealogies as "gentlemen," meaning, that they had an substantial inheritance, and did not have to work. James Russell Cuffe, was the only brother of Mariane Lane nee Cuff. He was born in France and educated in Dublin, having entered the university at age 17, on November 18, 1847. He is on record as still living in Ireland at Ballinrobe, and Gallway. He still resided in Ireland at age 53, but is also listed on an Ontario census record as having emigrated that same year. He was "James Russell Cuffe, "Gentleman," the son of James Cuff of Ballinrobe. There was also a James Cuff born 1624 in Ballinrobe, Mayo, Ireland, who is listed as "Sir Knight." Ellen A. Cuff was 2 years older than he was, and emigrated to Canada with Marian Lane, the wife of William Thomas Lane. Marian Lane was born in Ireland in 1840. She outlived her son, dying in Chatham-Kent, Ontario in 1933, just three years after her son William Andrew Laughlin, who was born in Uxbridge, Ontario, and died in 1930. When Marian Lane emigrated to Canada, she lived at Cannington, Ontario. Both James Russell Cuffe and Ellen were members of the Church of England, which is dramatically different than my parents faith. There are people of all denominations who may possess a desire to serve God. And yet they can nevertheless lack the purpose of God found in the apostolic instructions at the very inception of the church. Because of this deficit, an individual or family can live out their entire lives without coming into the very prophetic destiny God purposed and desires for them. In Acts 2:39, the Lord says this promise is without partiality. The promise is to you, and to your children, even to as many as the Lord our God shall call.
Though there are plenty of hard working folks among the Scottish and the Irish of Britain whose diaspora encircle the globe, and both have made exceptional contributions to society. But Catholics and Presbyterians alike may not be born again or filled with the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues. It doesn't mean these people all had religious convictions as outlined in the bible, and we tell our children this. But no one is raised in a bubble. Even the parent who tires very hard to provide good supervision, and to provide a Christian environment, goes thorough a time in which the values taught are tested by the family, in various ways.
In Acts 19:5, Paul, passing through the upper coasts came to Ephesus where he met disciples, and enquired of them, concerning their beliefs. Their answer was evidence enough for them to be called "believers," as he says: Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed? But they did not have all that the atoning sacrifice of Christ provided for believers, and which God wanted for them to have. Paul shared with them, and they received Messiah, and were baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, baptized in the Holy Spirit, with the evidence of speaking supernaturally in tongues (See: Acts 2:1-4, Acts 10:46-48) and prophecy. (Acts 19:1-6) Let's be watchful for how we can be a blessing for the glory of God.
Alana Campbell is a writer and artist-illustrator who lives in Washington state. She is married to Tom Campbell and they are the parents of 6 children.
