QUOTES ON GOD & GOVERNMENT FROM AMERICA'S FOUNDERS

"It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible."

George Washington

"The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity,"

John Adams

"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ."

Patrick Henry

Taken July 3rd at my home in Franklin, TN

"The highest glory of the American revolution is this; it connected, in one dissoluble bond, the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity," 

John Quincy Adams

"I have lived, sir, a long time and the linger I live the more convincing proofs I see of this truth--that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?"

Benjamin Franklin

"God who have us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are a gift from God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just and His justice cannot sleep forever,"

Thomas Jefferson

"A watchful eye must be kept on ourselves lest, while we are building ideal monuments of renown  and bliss here, we neglect to have our names enrolled in the Annals of Heaven,"

James Madison

Quotes originally compiled by Che Ahn.

www.JamesGoll.com

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Reflections on my 60th Birthday

Today I am a very blessed man. 60 years of my life now to remember, celebrate and move forward! Why? Forward is the only way to go! Let us each celebrate where the Lord has taken us, how He has gotten us there, and where He is leading us in this very hour.

Psalm 145:1-3 AMP
"I WILL extol You, my God, O King; and I will bless your name forever and ever [with grateful, affectionate praise]. Every day [with its new reasons] will I bless You [affectionately and gratefully praise You]; yes, I will praise Your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord and highly to be praised; and His greatness is [so vast and deep as to be] unsearchable."

Though days of sorrow have knocked on my door, EVERY DAY there is a new reason to bless His mighty name! Thank you to ALL who have prayed, encouraged, and supported me through out the years! I would not be where I am today without you.

Here is a song & video that my daughter and son-in-law made for me for my birthday. I hope you are blessed like I was!

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Honoring Our Veterans

“Give preference to one another in honor.” Romans 12: 12

This Monday, May 28, in the United States of America, is celebrated as Memorial Day. It is a legal holiday set aside to honor our veterans of war.  I am grateful for this day in our national history. This day holds fond memories in my growing up.

My father, Wayne Goll, as a veteran of WWII serving in the Army in various stations across the U. S. Michal Ann’s dad, Davis Hamilton, also served in the military and received a bronze star for his work in the tank brigade that liberated France from Nazi invasion. Thank the Lord for all the brave souls who have fought for the freedoms we easily take for granted.

In growing up, my dad always made sure that the American Flag flew outside our house on such holidays to make a statement that he was proud to be a citizen of this nation. My parents were active in the American Legion and Auxiliary and active patriots. Their actions set an example of not taking for granted the liberties we so enjoy in this God blessed land.

Though I never fought on any military battlefield, I just missed the Vietnam War by an inch, I am so grateful for all those men and women who sacrificed their time, their health and many their very lives for the sake of the common good. As for me and my house, I want to say THANK YOU!

To all you veterans of recent wars fought on foreign soil, I want to tip my hat and let it be known that I am grateful for your acts of courage. God Bless You and your families and God Bless the United States of America!

Sincerely,

Dr. James W. Goll

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Honoring the Mothers in My Life

Recently I was sorting through some things in a chest searching for something. In my process, I came across an amazing dress that our late dear Michal Ann had made for GraceAnn when she was a little girl. The detailed work, the hours of labor, it is a work of art – all done with love. I remember when she made the flower by hand that was sewed on the front of GraceAnn’s beautiful childhood dress. Indeed, the work of the hands of a great mother.

Our Dear Annie!

Ann was the youngest of four children, with fun loving older brothers John, David and Paul, all looking after their only little sister. Their mother, Dorris Grace, was a diligent schoolteacher and their father, Davis Hamilton, a hard working farmer and a county road maintainer. They grew up attending a very small rural Methodist Church with exceptionally close family ties to aunts, uncles and first cousins. Oh the value of a strong family!

Michal Ann’s goal was not be a great worldwide minister. Her goal was to love the Lord Jesus with all her heart, be a devoted wife and a loving mom. She did well. She departed from this life way too soon – on the infamous day of September 15^th, 2008. But she surely succeeded in her life goals and always kept her priorities right! Yes, even in the midst of being married to a globetrotting husband, eventually launching her own global ministry, Compassion Acts, writing books and ministering at various events. She was my angel.

Our four children, Justin, GraceAnn, Tyler and Rachel, her three brothers and I, her husband, all rise up and call her BLESSED on this Mother’s Day in 2012.

My Mom - Amanda Elizabeth Burns Goll

Amanda Elizabeth Burns was born on April 17, 1924 in rural Missouri to William and Hattie E. Burns. She was the youngest of four children – preceded in birth by her only brother Arnold, and sisters Grace Mae and Maude. She loved Jesus from an early age and was a dedicated church member and community worker all her life. She primarily was a praying wife and mom!

She was known countywide for her many quilts and hundreds of quarts of corn, green beans, and every other fruit and vegetable. I think her full time job was being a prayer gardener. Mom or MeMe, as the grandkids so fondly called her, graduated into her heavenly abode on Sunday, August 3, 2003 at her home in Cowgill, Missouri.

She imprinted my life with the spirit of prayer and dedicated my life to Jesus before I was ever born. Her prayers guide me to this day to be all that I can be in Lord Jesus Christ.

The Endearing Dorris Grace

Michal Ann’s mother – Dorris Grace McCoy Willard was an amazing wife, mother of four, a great schoolteacher, and lived a life dedicated to God and her family. Coming from an artistic and musical God fearing family, the McCoy and Willard gatherings were always full of life and fun! Especially the annual October Hayride and Christmas jamborees!

Dorris was a bird watcher who could identify any bird by it’s call or shadow, let lone it’s colors and flight patterns. She kept yearly and a lifetime list of every bird she every identified. She too departed way too soon, at the age of 62, and did not get to meet any of our four kids. But she will one day though as Jesus was first place in everything she did.

Mother’s – What An Amazing Creation!

Mother’s – what an amazing creation! What amazing plan! I miss them all today – on Mother’s Day 2012…. And my sweet grandmother’s as well!

So I blow some kisses heavenward today. I am so grateful for eternity – for heaven – and God’s great plan of salvation through work of the cross of Christ Jesus.

We are only separated for a short while! But till then, Jesus, if it is okay – tell Amanda Elizabeth, Dorris Grace and my darling Michal Ann – we still miss them and thank them for lives well lived. 

With Thankfulness!

James Wayne Goll and Family

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Hearing God in New Ways

I have not forgotten an early lesson that imprinted my spiritual life. During the Jesus Movement, I was attending a house-church-type meeting. A man from another state was ministering to us young leaders. He was a bit older than I was, and he was also more experienced in ministry. I was just sitting on the couch in the living room minding my own business when this man looked straight at me. He said, "Well, you feel like everything's all dried up, don't you?"

Now, at that time, I was not used to being around gifted people who had discernment, people who were capable of prophetically "reading my mail." He continued, "You feel like you're not hearing God's voice right now. Is that right?"

His readout on me was sadly accurate. I had gotten used to hearing God somewhat clearly in one specific way. But often I didn't know what He was saying. The visitor continued, "It's not that God has quit speaking. It's that He has just switched channels on His dial. It's like God uses a radio when He speaks to us. God has not quit speaking to you. He has just turned the knob over to a different channel that you are not used to hearing Him on." This man was using parabolic language; I could understand a radio changing channels. Instead of feeling condemned or exposed, I felt enlightened and encouraged. I was hearing God! It's just that there are many different ways the voice of God is transmitted to us. I left the room thinking, I can't  wait to discover the other ways by which my Papa God wants to speak to me!


Our Father's voice comes to us in such a great variety of ways that we need such moments of enlightenment. Otherwise, we tend to get locked into set patterns. It's so good of God to temporarily shut down one channel in order to open another. He hasn't quit speaking; He is opening our hearts and minds to hear His voice in new ways. He does this so that we will continue to grow progressively in our relationship with Him. He doesn't want us to become locked in to the same patterns of hearing Him. God's goal is a real, live relationship with us. 

For more check out my book, The Beginners Guide to Hearing God
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My Calling to Write – A Look Behind the Scenes

I wanted to write some personal this week in my Blog and as I prayed about it I thought I would give you a look behind the scenes and why I write as much as I do. We each need to review our callings in God from time to time and re-evaluate where we are and what we are doing. So here are some of my musings.


I still lived in Kansas City. It was 17 or so years ago. I had been on the road ministering and had just gotten home. I heard that there were extended meetings going on in Saint Louis at a church and that Rodney Howard Brown was ministering. I was hungry for more of the Lord and Michal Ann blessed me to go check things out. I decided to go with a couple of my friends. It was a fascinating series of meetings to me. I saw the raw anointing of God flowing through one of His servants.


I WAS DESPERATE! 


I began to cry out loud in the middle of the service as this man of God would slowly pass through the crowds and simply touch them and say over and over again, “FILL!” Well, he eventually made his way to the left side where I was sitting with my friends. I kept declaring, “Right here! Right now!” I was not disappointed but was surprised by what happened. As the servant of the Lord touched me, I was taken up in the Spirit in what is called a trance. I was no longer aware of what was taking place in the meeting but rather brought into a place invited by the Holy Spirit where heavenly worship was taking place. Then I heard a word spoken to me.


 “I commission you to compose transferrable concepts for those who will be touched in the coming moves of God. I commission you to write books, training manuals, and audio and video messages to ground my people in the Word of God. Ground them in the understandings of the previous historic moves of God so that the enemy will not be able to steal from them the impartations I give to them. I commission you to write about Encounters with God so that they may be equipped to be all that I call them to be.”


STUNNED BY THE WORD                                                     

The Seer Expanded Edition

Up to that point and time the only real writing I had done was my monthly newsletter. That was it. I was not trained in creative writing. My college degree was a BS in Social Work! But God does not always call the qualified; He calls the available. Then He trains the available and qualifies them to fulfill their calling.


Well, that was my “calling and commissioning” into a lot of what I still do to this day. I started having dreams of book titles and covers of books and study guides. Step by step the Holy Spirit led me and now today I have written some Best Sellers and some others – that are just as equally as good – but are relatively unnoticed books. I have now composed somewhere around 20 books, 20 study manuals and another 10 co-authored books.


This is now all leading up to the launch this fall of the God Encounters Training – E-School of the Heart – where faith and life meet. My hunger for more of the Lord led me into a journey that was a surprise to me. I am sure He also has some surprises in store for you as well.


So there is peak behind the scenes into My Calling to Write. I trust you have and will benefit from this personal note. Be All You Can Be!


 James W. Goll
www.TheSeerExpanded.com 

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Seeking the Vision that Sustains Us

Keeping our vision of the Lord clear before us will sustain us through the many labors of our life and ministry.

Over the years, I have become convinced that in the Christian life at least two things are certain: God never changes, and we are always changing. Our life as a Christian is a continual transition from one place to another, one level to another, one understanding to another. The purpose of spiritual light is to bring us into change and growth. The more light we have, the more change we experience, and the more we change (for the better) the more we are brought into higher levels of glory. Unless we are in constant transition, we will stop somewhere along the way and settle down. The Christian life is a frontier. God did not call us to be settlers but to be pilgrims and pioneers. This is the point of Paul's prayer in the first chapter of Ephesians.

The more enlightenment we have, the more wisdom and revelation we are open to receive, and the greater understanding we can develop of the hope of His calling, the glory of His inheritance, and the surpassing greatness of His power as they apply to our lives.

Food for thought:
How has keeping your vision of the Lord clear before you sustained you through your labors in ministry and in your life?


Taken from The Seer Expanded Edition.

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