Successful secessions in the Bible and in history. Our mission Frontline Fellowship has been working for 38 years, seeking to serve Churches worldwide. Jeremiah chapter 6, verse 16 to 17. Stand in the way and see and ask for the old paths, where the good ways and walk in it. Then you will find rest for your soul. I sent watchmen over you, saying, listen to the sound of the trumpet. This is the word of God. There were times in the Old Testament, Israel, when the watchmen of all had to sound the trumpet when they saw danger. Maybe it was a fire, thieves, maybe wild animals threatening their flocks or their crops, or an invading army. And the Lord has sent watchmen over us to see ahead and to understand the times and to see what the threats are so that we can be warned and come in and mutually contribute to defense. In the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem, Nehemiah had the trumpets next to him so whenever one part of the wall was under attack, that sound of trumpets or the rest would come to mutual defense and they worked with a tool in one hand and a weapon in the other as they rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem. We need to understand the times and know what God wants us to do. In Exodus 10 verse 3 we read, So Moses and Aaron came into Pharaoh and said to him, This thus says the Lord God of Israel, How long will you refuse to humble yourself and believe in me? Let my people go that they may serve me. The nation of Israel grew out of secession from Egypt. In the Bible a nation used in the Great Commission, make disciples of all nations, the word is ethnein, from which we get the word ethnic, or ethno-linguistic people. And so the Lord, in commanding us to make disciples of all nations, did not speak about every country, but every nation. Now, there are 212 countries registered with the United Nations. States. Anxious with flags, basically. There are 12,000 nations on Earth according to the Ethnologue of Whitlock Bible Translators. If you look at the world as ethnolinguistic people groups of a shared faith, you see, it's not enough to say, we have a mission in Indonesia. There's 1,300 language groups in Indonesia. There's 144 language groups in Sudan. There are 480 different language groups or tribes in Nigeria. We have 11 official languages in South Africa, and a lot more besides. South Africa's not a country, it's not a nation, it's an empire. Residue of the British Empire. Forcible union of South Africa back in 1910. But in the Bible, the nation is an ethno-linguistic people who've got a shared faith. The scriptures make it clear that the Hebrews remained Hebrews. Even after 480 years in Egypt, they didn't become Egyptians, but are still Hebrews. And we need to look at nations the way God looks at them. An ethnolinguistic people group of a shared faith. We're not geographic accents, but demographic descendants. So, if you were born on an ocean liner, mid-Atlantic, what nation are we? We don't belong to Atlantis. We belong to the nationality of New Zealand. a while ago, and his son was born in Hong Kong, but he could not get a Chinese citizenship. It was said he was not Chinese. He was born and lived in Hong Kong his whole life, and yet they just quite adamantly knocked down nationality. But there are other countries like America which think, well, even if you came in illegally, if you're born in America, you're somehow a citizen, you can bring everyone else in. That's not the way it works logically or biblically. The secession of the ten northern tribes of Israel from Judah and Benjamin is also very interesting. In 1 Kings chapter 12 we read of the secession of the ten northern tribes from the United Kingdom of Israel. There were three kings of the United Kingdom, Saul, David, and Solomon. But after Solomon, the United Kingdom was divided when Solomon's son, Rehoboam, foolishly dismissed the wise counsel of the elders who had stood before his father solemnly. Instead, Rehoboam chose to rather listen to the young men who had grown up with him. As a result, he arrogantly dismissed the petition of his subjects and threatened to tax them even heavier and burdened with more precious laws than they had ever experienced before. 1 Kings 12 verse 16 we read, Now when all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, The people answered the king, saying, what share have we in David? We have an inheritance. And we have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, O Israel, now cede your own house, O David. So Israel departed to their tents. 1 Kings 12, verse 19 to 20. So Israel has been rebellion against the house of David to this day. There was none that followed the house of David but the tribe of Judah only. Later, Benjamin joined them. When King Rehoboam assembled 180,000 warriors to fight against the House of Israel to restore the United Kingdom, God stopped them, declaring that this secession was over. And so we read it in 1 Kings 12, but the word of the Lord came to Shamir, the man of God, saying, speak to Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, king of Judah, to all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people, saying, thus says the Lord, you shall not children of Israel. Let every man return to his house for this thing is from me. Therefore they obeyed the word of the Lord and turned back according to the word of the Lord. And so Judah in the south and Israel, the northern kingdom of Israel to the north, were separated from the secession as reported in 1 Kings 12. And fortunately they didn't go into a civil war. So right there, aside from, let my people go, the birth of Israel as a secession from Egypt out of the lands of Goshen, so we see again in 1 Kings 12, secession can be of God. The scriptures emphasize that all the families of the nations of the earth ought to sing the praise of the Creator in every language and tongue. And so we read in Revelation 5-9, at the great day, at the end of time and they sang a new song saying you're worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals for you were slain and have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation. Now this is interesting that even in heaven there's a distinction of tongues, languages, nations. And so, interesting, today there's a lot of people who try and say, no, well, we all won, there's no difference. And they quote, they misquote, from Galatians, which says, for there's now the Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, we all won in Christ Jesus. Well, that is saying there's only one way of salvation. That's not saying men can now identify as women and compete in women's races. It doesn't say a woman cannot identify as men, and it doesn't say that there's no more distinctions between male and female, and it's wrong to have categories in sports between male and female categories. It's not saying that it's wrong to have women-only, men-only bathrooms. It's saying there's only one way of salvation. And if you wanted to take that, say there's no more race, nation, tribe, tongue, well then you'd be saying that there's no more genders. if you want to take that first. In fact, the scripture says the same author, the Apostle Paul, who was inspired by God to write Galatians, is neither male nor female, slave nor free, Jew nor Greek, nor one with Christ Jesus. Now, to the older men I say. Now to the younger men I say. Now to the older woman I say. Now to the younger woman I say. Now to the employers I say. Now to the employees I say. So there's still distinctions You still have your responsibilities, and there's still stations in life, and there's still responsibilities and duties, unique to one's age, unique to one's position, unique to one's gender. And for people to try and declare now that since our Lord Jesus came, suddenly there's no more nations, let's all have open borders, that is not biblical. Even in heaven, there's the distinction of the different tribes and languages and tongues and peoples. And so, let's not go further than what scripture has said. A nation is an ethno-linguistic people group of a shared faith. And as a missionary, my goal is not just to plant a church in Sudan or Nigeria or the Congo, but amongst every people group, every unreached people group in those areas. It's not enough to say they have a church in Amsterdam, There's also a group of Vietnamese boat people living in Amsterdam. There's also Moroccans living in Amsterdam. You've got to think of each ethnolinguistic people group. Cape Town is such a cosmopolitan city. We have so many languages. I remember when I could go into the streets in Cape Town and just have English and Afrikaans chaps. That's all I needed. And then, towards the end of the 80s, beginning of the 90s, you still need a few Xhosa chaps. Now you need French and Portuguese and Swahili and a multitude of other languages that most people have never imagined. Shona, Ndebele, Chichewa, and so on. Now, this has changed the whole character of Cape Town. Cape Town is now a multiplicity of language groups and so on. And you need churches there. Now, I've spoken in French-speaking Congolese congregations in Cape Town, downtown Cape Town. I've spoken in Nigerian congregations in Cape Town. I've spoken Zimbabwean congregations. Obviously they're more comfortable with regard to their own language and their own culture, and there's nothing wrong with that. In missiology they teach you that's what you've got to do. But you go down the road into another department and they suddenly teach you it's evil, you've got to have everything all together, but that's not biblical, and it's not natural, and it's actually a recipe for conflicts and problems. There's a lot of confusion about modern nations. Many today are confused about the concept of nations. This could be because it's a group of state representatives in New York calling themselves the United Nations. Of course, most of them have no legitimacy at all. They're not exactly elected, most of them. The United Nations is the largest collection of unelected dictators on the planet. It's a collection of mass murderers, drug traffickers, human traffickers. Most of them are actually gangsters with flags. Fidel Castro, how many times has he addressed the United Nations? Gaddafi and Ahmadinejad and abomination. You recognize this quote? It actually comes from Star Wars, the first one, number four, which is the first one. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum in Berlin. Well, in fact, I think that applies more to the UN than to that place in Star Wars. We have a poster nations keep up. The UN is unfriendly, unreasonable, unaccountable, unregenerate. They're just un- anything un- you can think of. We don't want them. Our friends in Rwanda have banned the UN from their place and why should they not? The United States deludes itself that it's one nation under God. Indivisible! Why 50 states in a voluntary union should be considered indivisible seems incomprehensible to most of us. Americans are expected to make this pledge on a nation-wide basis. Abraham Lincoln waged a ruinous war in which over 650,000 people died to preserve the Union of what was meant to be a confederation of sovereign states, each with a flag, with a legislature. Since that war between the states, and by the way, more Americans died in the Civil War, the war between the states, of 1861 to 1865 that have died in all the subsequent wars combined. First World War, Second World War, Vietnam War, Korean War, Afghanistan, Iraq, and whereabouts of America's party. The Americans lost more men in their war between the states than all the other wars that they fought combined. And America's become more centralized as a result. Before the war between states, America was the United States of America of since Lincoln's war we call the United States of America is. It's moved from a multiplicity of states, the United States of America to the United States of America in real sense. With the central government overruling state governments to such an extent that matters like abortion and state-mandated education and perversion and homosexual marriage and who knows what other things. You just think there was a Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. They also want to be considered to be indivisible, although definitely not under God. When the Soviet Union, the USSR, broke up in 1991, this was considered a good thing. And it was a lot of rejoicing, as Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Ukraine, Belarus, Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and a whole lot of stars you'd never view existed, and they seceded from the Union. the Soviet Union. And it's a good thing for freedom that the Soviet Union was not indivisible. In fact, there's even more. They've got 122 national entities in what is called, or what was called, the Soviet Union. Isn't it interesting that the two greatest empires of the 20th century are still in denial that they were even empires? United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics decry imperialism, and yet they're both empires. And in Denali, the Austrians knew they were an empire. The French knew they had an empire. The Germans knew they had an empire. The British knew they had an empire. Some still think they've got it. But the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, they denied that they ever were an empire. In fact, you can see from this National Geographic, they had a vast amount of different nationalities, tribes, and languages. In fact, they even had a tribe of half-immortals. I didn't know that that was actually the old Soviet Union. And so what used to be one nation, indivisible, is now 15 different states. And it could divide a bit further than that, but still there's a lot of countries today that are free of the Soviet Union and they're very happy about it. And today Russia is still a big country The destructive legacy of Versailles caused a lot of wars, especially the Second World War. There never was such a concept as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia before the vindictive and destructive Versailles Treaty of 1919. And these entities do not exist anymore. Versailles has to be the worst treaty in the history of mankind. It guaranteed the Second World War. These were bad ideas from the very beginning. Free and independent nations have broken away from these empires, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. Yugoslavia, meaning the land of the South Slavs, included Slovenian and Croatian, who were definitely not Slavic. They were formally part of the Austrian Empire. They had Germanic language, Germanic culture. However, the fragile political entity called Yugoslavia was composed of six republics, five nationalities, four languages, three major religions, two alphabets, 1989. Another kaleidoscope nation created from the Versailles Treaty was Czechoslovakia, a polyglot nation, with no nation, no nationality making up the majority. It did not survive long, the fall of the Soviet Union, the fall of the Iron Curtain, the withdrawal of the Soviet Army's occupation, and in 1993 Slovakia seceded from Czechoslovakia peacefully after referendum in what they called the Velvet Divorce. done peacefully just shows it can be done. Some of the most successful countries in the world today are the results of secession. Switzerland secedes from Austria in 1291. We all should know the story of William Tell, expert marksman with a crossbow, who refused to bow before the head of Albert Gesler, raised on a pole in the market square of Eldorff. William Tell, sharpshooter extraordinary with a crossbow, went into town with his son, but refused to bow before Gesler's hat. And so Gesler's cruel wrath mixed with the curiosity to test William Tell's legendary marksmanship, commanded him to shoot an apple from the head of his son with a crossbow bolt. What kind of sickly sadist comes up with a test like that? And yet William Tell succeeded in doing so. Gessler asked, why have you ready two arrows in your hand? William Tell said, if I'd missed with the first, I would not have missed with the second into your own heart. Now this was considered seditious talk for some reason, and enraged Gessler had William Tell arrested and taken by boat across Lake Luzerne to Kuzna to spend the rest of his life in a dungeon. A fierce storm enabled William Tell to escape to shore where he later ambushed and killed Gessner with an arrow in his heart, and he launched the young Confederacy's secession from Austrian rule. This is the beginning of the most successful free republic in the history of the world. They celebrated 700 years of being a republic back in 1991. The first three cantons which formed the Swiss Confederacy in 1291 were Schweiss, Uri, and also Walden. In the oldest republican world, Switzerland consists of 26 cantons, and all powers devolve down to the cantons. Despite Switzerland occupying the crossroads of Germanic and Romanish culture, as reflected in its linguistic and cultural regions, they've got German, they've got French, they've got Italian, they've got Romance, Its confederal, decentralized, direct democracy style of armed neutrality enabled Switzerland to stay out of the two ruinous world wars. Their cities have not been leveled by mass bombing raids. They still have buildings that are five, six hundred, a thousand years old. The United States of America seceded from Great Britain in 1776. demanding their chartered rights as Englishmen under Magna Carta 1215. The 13 colonies constituted themselves as the United States of America with their Declaration of Independence 4th July 1776. They maintained that as the English government had failed to protect them and to provide their rights guaranteed by Magna Carta, the first Bill of Rights, the first were absolved of allegiance to the British government in London. And so those 13 colonies of Britain seceded, and you've noticed France controlled most of what today is the United States at that time, and Spain controlled another section including Florida. Interesting how those 13 colonies grew. Led by William of Orange, the Netherlands seceded from Spain beginning in 1568. The Netherlands, including what today It used to be a colony of Spain. Belgium seceded from the Netherlands in 1230. Texas seceded from Mexico in 1836. Remember the Alamo? That was a pivotal event in war of independence for Texas. The cruelty and arbitrary lawlessness of President Antonio López Santa Anna. Always thought strange we've got a Santa Anna spur in Newlands. Doesn't seem very American. I mean Santa Anna is like anti-American actually. This led other Texans, or Texians as they called them then, to rise up and defeat the Mexican army at the Battle of San Jacinto in 1836, securing the independence of Texas from Mexico. And Texas still has, on their entrance into the Union, the right of secession, should they choose so. The United States grew The voluntary union should be, you can only have a front door, there's no back door, and you can't leave. If you join a club, you should have the right to leave the club. Certainly Texas maintains they have the right, as does Connecticut. Nicaragua seceded from Guatemala in 1838, and Norway seceded from Sweden in 1905. I remember just 15 years ago they were celebrating the 100th anniversary of Norway. Prince Karl of Denmark was unanimously elected king by the Norwegian parliament and the first king of truly independent Norway in 580 years. He took the name Haakon VII. A national referendum confirmed the people's preference for a monarchy over a republic and a peaceful separation of Norway from Sweden was elected 7 June 1905. Norway is a very great free country. Finland seceded from Russia in 1917. It's not that long ago. Just a few years ago, they were celebrating their 100th anniversary as a free, independent country. In reaction to the Bolshevik Revolution, which was tearing Russia apart, the Finns set up their own parliament, which declared independence from Russia 6th of December 1917. In fact, you'll notice the cross is a unique part of every Viking flag. All the Viking flags have the crosses of Iceland, Finland, Denmark, and Sweden, of course. Even the United Kingdom's flag is a series of crosses, St. George's Cross, the St. Andrew's Cross, St. David's Cross, indicating the United Kingdom, and so it just reminds us that the Vikings conquered Great Britain too, 1066 in all. The Republic of Ireland seceded from Great Britain in 1922. Those of you following Downton Abbey, you can't miss the fact that who is agitating, the chauffeur, Brandon Branson, and Ireland was once part of the United Kingdom. And they broke away, still nominally under the Crown, and later they became a full-on republic. The Republic of Ireland, independent since 1922. Not that long ago. Of course, the northern part, which was maturely Protestant, was also loyalist, unionist, wanted to remain under the Crown, wanted to stay part, because the Protestants and because they saw the crown as their protection from Catholicism, so in fact Northern Ireland remains part of the Union of the United Kingdom to this day. Pakistan seceded from India in 1947. Pakistan was always part of British India, now it's an independent country. Now Pakistan originally was East Pakistan and West Pakistan. There was the war when East Pakistan seceded from Pakistan in 1971, But Pakistan and Bangladesh are recognized as two separate entities. Bangladesh is independent as well now. Taiwan seceded from China in 1949. Not that China recognizes it to this day, but Taiwan is a super successful, extremely advanced, great country. And Republic of China or Free China, Taiwan is an excellent example. Singapore seceded from Malaysia in 1965. The story is, Malaysia became independent from Great Britain in 1957, and then Malaya first, and then Malaysia was renamed in 1961, and then Singapore seceded peacefully in 1965. Now, Singapore was an unpromising island swamp, and yet they've turned one of the most potent economic powers in Africa, one of the cleanest, neatest, well-run places, and Even though I personally haven't been minted, my wife has, but I've got a lot of Bibles for Sudan printed in Singapore, because they can print at one-fifth the price of Kenya. Now, if I want Bibles to go to Sudan, you'd think I'd print them in Kenya, and I'd like to. But the Kenyan government has a 26% Well, you look and see how many books in our shops even are prints in Singapore. Singapore leads the world in so many different economic spheres. Why? Tax haven. And if you want investments, if you want full employment, if you want job creators and employers to pour into an area, you make a tax haven. That's why we opened the border. Namibia seceded from South Africa in 1990, and to be honest, they've done darn well. They're doing better than we are, actually, in terms of safety, economy, a whole lot of things. Namibia's actually, I'm sure, pretty glad they seceded from South Africa. They've got a bit more stability, a lot more stability than we have right now. In the army, we were continually reminded, winners never quit. Quitters never win. Never give up. Pole PT, never given. Rock PT, concrete block PT. It can't be nearly go below, but yes you can. How much longer? A bit longer. And the pain tame, no pain, no gain. And rifle PT, buddy PT, take another man in the foot and run. Pole PT, Army tradition, and just carrying poles, that's not enough. They added tires, they added drums, and if we had a problem with one another, gave us boxing gloves and just sorted out. And you know, the way men are, you can punch one another to pieces and then shake hands and eventually got an opportunity. And this is what was very good about National Service. We were taught to strive for victory. The Army disciplined us. Funny how youngsters who couldn't make their beds was suddenly taught to iron their beds, make their beds so well, and have the floor polished. You know, their mothers had tried for 18 years before, but the sergeant major succeeded in getting us organized, disciplined, ramrod straight, and inspections. Inspection for armoured was a lot more complicated than for infantry. We were taught and forced to do without, to endure hardship, to persevere in spite of all hardships and discouragement, and live fire obstacle courses. Obstacles are only there to be overcome. Obstacles aren't there for you to stop. Obstacles are just a challenge. And that's why we would train and train till we could go through the obstacle course so fast, you barely noticed it. Even when deprived of sleep and food and pushed to the limit, to never give up, to never make excuses, of my complaint. Selection Army and in sports teams are aimed at weeding out those who are too weak, physically, emotionally, mentally. In the military, instructors would deliberately discourage us and attempt candidates to give up, to see who had what it took to endure. 6th South African Infantry, when I joined, there were 2,000 of us there. Over the first few weeks, we were down to 600. found out those who didn't make this, that and the other. And when you talk about paras and recces, well, very few would make the selection most of course we bleed it out. We're taught to adapt, to persevere, to overcome. You must endure hardship as a good soldier, Christ Jesus. Pass it forward to Timothy 2 verse 3. When General Sir Walter Walker and visited the border, South East Africa. And he quoted from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who is, we all should know, he's the one who's made the whole show. No, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was not the, who's this famous detective? Detective. Sherlock Holmes, yes. He created the Sherlock Holmes character. So, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, had written in the Great War War, he is actually involved in the Great War War, as he called it, because we called the Engels a warlock, take a community of Dutchmen of the type who defended themselves for 50 years against all the power of Spain, at a time when Spain was the greatest power in the world, intermix them with the strangest inflexible French Huguenots who gave up home and fortune and left their country forever, at the time of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, The product must obviously be one of the most rugged, virile, uncomfortable races ever seen on earth. Take this formidable people and train them for seven generations in constant warfare against savage men and ferocious beasts in circumstances in which no weakling could survive. Place them to their quite exceptional skill with weapons and in horsemanship. Give them a country which is eminently suitable to the tactics of the huntsman, the marksman, and the rider. then finally put a finer temper upon the military qualities by a dour, fatalistic, Old Testament religion, what he means is Calvinism, and an ardent and consuming patriotism. Combine all these qualities and all these impulses in one individual, and you have the modern world. The most formidable enemy who ever crossed the path of Imperial Britain. Our military history has largely consisted of conflicts with France, But Napoleon and all his veterans have never treated us as roughly as these hard-bitten farmers with their ancient theology and the inconveniently modern rifles." Or which meant the Mauser 7.7. The bitter anger. And that Sir Walter Walker applied to the South African army and said, the South African army is the finest army in the world today. I'm speaking about the time of 1980, that we had at that stage, the most combat-trained, with the highest standard of training. Whereas the Americans would train their infantry for six weeks and put them into Vietnam, our men would train for nine months before being put in the field. At Milton High School in Bulawayo, I was taught Rudyard Kipling's inspiring poem on courage and safety. Kipling stated that this poem, If you can keep your head, while all about you are losing theirs, and blaming it on you. If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, but make allowance for their doubting too. If you can wait, and not be tired by waiting, or being lied about, not dealing lies, or being hated, not the greater hating, and yet don't look too good, or talk too wise, If you can dream, yet not make dreams your master. If you can think, and not make thoughts your aim. If you can meet with triumph or disaster, and treat those two imposters just the same. If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken, twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools. Or watch the thing you've given your life to broken and stupid. to build them up again with worn out tools. If you can make one heap of all your winnings and risk it on one turn of pitch and toss and lose and start again at your beginnings and never breathe a word about your loss. If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew to serve your aim long after they've gone and hold on when there's nothing in you except the will that says to them, hold on. If you can talk to crowds and keep your virtue, if you can walk with kings and not lose the common touch, if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, if all men count with you, but not too much, if you can fill the unforgiving minute with 60 seconds worth of distance run, yours is the earth and everything in it, and what is more, you'll be a man, my son. That's the poem. All right, it could be modeled on the life of Leander Stodgen. Courage is not the absence of fear, but it's a determination to do our duty in spite of our fear. Some rational God-given sense of caution can protect us and our loved ones in prolonged life, wearing helmets on motorbikes, wearing seatbelts in cars, things like that. But if fear paralyzes us into inactivity or neutrality It is evil. The Bible says repeatedly, be strong and of good courage. Do not fear. Do not be afraid of it. For the Lord your God, he is the one who goes with you. He will never leave you nor forsake you. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Verses from Proverbs are written over the doors and gates of many a university in the world. In the world you will have tribulation. Be of good cheer, Jesus said, I have overcome the world. Now the Lord is the spirit, and of the spirit of the Lord is liberty. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Raw information, such as makes up the majority of the newspapers today, is cheap. Information is cheap. But understanding is valuable. But participation is most precious. Huge difference from head knowledge, to heart understanding, to boots and feet on the ground, sleeves rolled up, doing what's got to be done. It is said that 5% of people make things happen. 15% of people watch things happen. And 80% of people don't have a clue what happens. It's also been observed, I heard this in military intelligence, 5% of people think. 15% of the people think they think. And 80% of people never think. For those who think you need books, seminars, conferences and documentation. For those who think they think leaflets and video documentaries are needed. For the 80% you're reduced to soundbites, slogans, t-shirts and bumper stickers. However, every movement needs to mobilize every section of society. It starts with leadership training, books and seminars, going through leaflets and documentaries, but not neglecting slogans, soundbites, social media. William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, said, for strength to ever do the right, for grace to conquer in the fight, for power to walk the world in white, send the fire. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? Though an army may encamp about me, my heart will not fear. Though war may arise against me, in this I will be confident.