Written By: Josh Kimbrell.
In South Carolina our motto, as you’ve heard me repeat often, is “Dum Spiro Spero,” translated “While I breath, I hope.” That spirit of hope and purpose has guided our State since the first shots of the Revolutionary War to the current struggle for the soul of our Country. Tonight, I’d humbly submit to you that this spirit of hope has always existed in our land because of our deep-seated faith that God is the Provider of our freedoms and our future.
That’s why, as we observe Easter, I’d ask y’all to direct your hopes and dreams for this life, and the next, on the Author of Liberty, Jesus Christ. In thinking of what I wanted to say to you this evening, it crossed my mind how our State motto may best read “Dum Is Spiro Spero,” or “While He Breathes, I hope.”
It is the goal of the CEO Round Table of South Carolina to bring His Truth and His hope to the Palmetto State. Let us always remember the words of C.S. Lewis, “If you aim for Heaven, you’ll get Earth thrown-in as well…if you aim for Earth, you’ll miss both.
God Bless You, Happy Easter…
“Arise My Love” by Newsong
Defy Disillusionment:
Over the past week I’ve carefully watched the response of folks across South Carolina, indeed the nation, to the forced passage of national healthcare. The reaction has run the gambit of human emotion, from total disillusionment to the false notion that the right political strategy can save the day. The problem with both of the above extremes is that they’re based on human wisdom and ability. I’d humbly suggest that the challenge to our way of life, manifested in a socialist agenda, is rooted in secularism.
Many of my friends think I’m stretching it to talk about healthcare coverage with spiritual conviction. Most feel that this is merely an issue of taxes and spending, deficits and debt, rather than a matter of the heart. To that I’d offer that taxes and spending are moral imperatives, and decisions about deficits and debt are affected by our spiritual state. You see, I believe the entire debate before us in South Carolina, in America, is not so much an economic imperative, but an issue of masters.
A rallying cry often repeated during the American Revolution was “we have no King but Jesus.” American Colonists believed that God was the source, the Grantor, of their rights. It was their opinion that governments are instituted to serve as guarantors of those rights, which they can never create or destroy. America’s greatness is found not in her economic and military might. Instead, her economic and military might is rooted in the strength of her values. I tend to agree with former Attorney General John Ashcroft who stated that “unique among the nations, America recognized the source of our character as being godly and eternal, not civic and temporal.” So, the struggle in which we find ourselves may be best described by the title of a Chuck Colson classic Kingdoms in Conflict.
The law of men is oppression; the law of the Lord is liberty. The real challenge facing America is a government that’s working to replace God as the source of the nation’s security and strength. We’ve come to the place of Israel before us: do we demand a king? Even a cursory glance at the Old Testament indicates that God tried to warn His people about the peril of power in the hands of one man. Today, the struggle is the same. Do we clamor for the king of big government, because the rest of the world demands it? Do we go the way of Old Testament Israel and choose a King for “comfort,” rather than fight for freedom? Or do we rise to the occasion of this moment and choose freedom for our families? Galatians 5 tells us that “Christ set us free that we might be free indeed.” Let us choose freedom.
When there are “Kingdoms in Conflict” avoid the temptation to become disillusioned and hopeless. When there are “Kingdoms in Conflict” pray and fight that our kingdom may reflect His.
Josh Kimbrell is President & Chairman of CEO Round Table of South Carolina. CEO stands for “Christians Empowered & Organized.” Part of the mission of CEO Round Table is “to promote a way of life that embraces faith, family, and freedom.”
