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February 2009 Newsletter
A Special Note from Ed
I was laying wide awake in bed the other night
at about 3 in the morning, unableto sleep. The Lord really gave me a burden for the nation and the church and gave me aninsight to one of the key reasons we Christians are losing battle after battle for our freedoms in this country today.I thought over the events of First Chronicles, beginning in Chapter 11, where it talksabout David’s Mighty Men. These were called
mighty men of valor 
because they trulymade a difference in their land as they gladly submitted themselves and committedthemselves to David, their leader. They were men without compromise.David’s mighty men didn’t start out from some Military Academy. They were anuntrained lot.
 And everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him. So he became captainover them. And there were about four hundred men with him. NKJV 
Yet from this zealous crowd arose the Mighty Men of Valor. They were submitted,committed and fiercely loyal. They were unswerving, unmoved from their purpose. Andthey fulfilled God’s purpose for their nation. Today, too few men in the church make that kind of commitment to their spiritual leader,their pastor. The ones who do not have that kind of accountability in their lives survive ina convenient world of compromise. Their commitment is to whatever works and towhatever is the least hassle. It is too uncomfortable for them to be submitted to someonewho holds the Bible as the rod of truth and conduct. They may be saved but they have no passion for the gospel, the church, or the lost.Most churches are struggling financially today. Few have more than a handful of tithe payers, yet that is probably one of the very first fruits of a committed man.
Saints Alive In JesusP.O. Box 1347, Issaquah, WA 98027
7www.saintsalive.comed@saintsalive.com 
 
The church survives on the acts and the prayers of its women, who probably comprise 60-70% of active adult church members. God bless them for carrying the load they do carry.As a result, the church is weak and the walls of safety are in shambles. The world has pushed down the ramparts and the church, in general, has become an extension of theworld, just the same except with Sunday church.The late and the greatest Christian apologist of the 20
th
Century, Dr. Walter Martin, often said that the cults were the unpaid bills of the Christian Church. Hecalled out for the church to “Contend for the Faith”.
3 Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you tocontend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. 4 For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago weremarked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord JesusChrist. Jude 3-4
I find it disheartening when hundreds of thousands of Muslims storm the streets and gocrazy because someone drew a cartoon picture of Mohammed.Yet, where were the Christian men when some artist placed a small statue of Jesus on theCross in a container of urine and called it art. Not only was it in a public exhibit, but our tax dollars paid the artist through the NEA.Today, the church and Christianity are being battered from every side and the churchgives in, backs away and cowers, because the Mighty Men of Valor are missing in action.The zealous few who are trying to hold back the flood waters are spread too thin.
I call upon every man reading this to go to his pastor and enlist. I call upon everychurch to preach this message and have an altar call where men can walk forwardand stand before the congregations of our nation and be held accountable to becomethat church’s; that pastor’s Mighty Men of Valor.
The following article describes what I mean when I talk about zealous men. It is a short part of a book called Practical Religion by a true 19
th
century Zealot. Please read it. It iswhat I want to be said about me when I am off to heaven. It is where my heart and mylife abide.
Your Brother in ChristEd Decker http://www.hymnsite.com/lyrics/umh575.sht
Saints Alive In JesusP.O. Box 1347, Issaquah, WA 98027
7www.saintsalive.comed@saintsalive.com 
 
PRACTICAL RELIGION
.
JOHN CHARLES RYLE, D.D.,
LORD BISHOP OF LIVERPOOL
;
I. Let me show, in the first place, what is zeal in religion.II. Let me show, in the second place, when a man can be called rightly zealous inreligion?III. Let me show, in the third place, why it is a good thing for a man to be zealous inreligion?I. First of all, I propose to consider this question. “What is zeal in religion?”Zeal in religion is a burning desire to please God, to do His will, and to advance Hisglory in the world in every possible way. It is a desire which no man feels by nature, — which the Spirit puts in the heart of every believer when he is converted,—but whichsome believers feel so much more strongly than others that they alone deserve to becalled “zealous” men.This desire is so strong, when it really reigns in a man, that it impels him to make anysacrifice,—to go through any trouble,—to deny himself to any amount,—to suffer, towork, to labour, to toil,—to spend himself and be spent, and even to die,—if only he can please God and honour Christ.A zealous man in religion is pre-eminently a man of one thing. It is not enough to saythat he is earnest, hearty, uncompromising, thorough-going, whole-hearted, fervent inspirit. He only sees one thing, he cares for one thing, he lives for one thing, he isswallowed up in one thing; and that one thing is to please God. Whether he lives, or whether he dies,—whether he has health, or whether he has sickness,—whether he isrich, or whether he is poor,—whether he pleases man, or whether he gives offence,— whether he is thought wise, or whether he is thought foolish,—whether he gets blame, or whether he gets praise,—whether he gets honour, or whether he gets shame,—for all thisthe zealous man cares nothing at all.He burns for one thing; and that one thing is to please God, and to advance God’sglory. If he is consumed in the very burning, he cares not for it,—he is content. He feelsthat, like a lamp, he is made to burn; and if consumed in burning, he has but done thework for which God appointed him. Such an one will always find a sphere for his zeal. If he cannot preach, and work, and give money, he will cry, and sigh, and pray. Yes: if he isonly a pauper, on a perpetual bed of sickness, he will make the wheels of sin around himdrive heavily, by continually interceding against it.If he cannot fight in the valley with Joshua, he will do the work of Moses, Aaron, andHur, on the hill. (Exod. xvii. 9-13.) If he is cut off from working himself, he will give theLord no rest till help is raised up from another quarter, and the work is done. This is whatI mean when I speak of “zeal” in religion.
Saints Alive In JesusP.O. Box 1347, Issaquah, WA 98027
7www.saintsalive.comed@saintsalive.com 
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