2004 will no doubt be remembered as one of the most unique year’s in our twenty year history of service to God as a family and ministry. The Walk Across America changed our lives. It changed me as a husband, father, and minister of the Gospel of the Kingdom. The spiritual, mental, and physical ordeal worked more of God into our lives. As a result, our family is better equipped to deal with the struggle of raising a large homeschool family, seminary work, and all the ministry responsibilities in Waco and throughout America. We are grateful as we now turn out hearts towards home and this precious holiday season.

2004 is coming to a close and 2005 is swiftly coming upon us. Our hearts now seek the Lord to honestly assess our previous year’s service. It is important for us to review the good, the bad, and the ugly in the hopes that we have grown to be better servants of Christ. The Thomas Nation has much to be thankful for and much to thank you for. It was the faithful prayers, love, and support of so many that made this year possible and so powerful. Merry Christmas to each and everyone of you!

Just recently Flip and I talked about the significance of the Walk Across America and our national event that was held in Columbus, Ohio. Who would have known that all eyes would be upon Ohio and it would become the epi-center of this year’s election? We certainly didn’t know it when we took our first steps in San Clemente and set our face like flint towards Columbus. The following is Flip’s observation and history of how the Lord led us to prepare the way of the Lord in this capital city prior to the national election. Enjoy!

Could any of us have possibly known the political and spiritual significance of the State of Ohio in this year’s Presidential election? No way! Yet, God Himself guided us to the capital of the State of Ohio to conduct our national event this summer and be a precursor to the November elections. The theology of the church house burst into biography in the streets of Columbus and the picture was painted. It was a living parable for all of Ohio to see that moral issues would be the ones determining this election and Christians would be the ones bringing the battle to the gates.

It was in August of 2003 when God brought many of us to contend for the faith in Montgomery, Alabama, as we joined Chief Justice Roy Moore in the battle over the Ten Commandments Monument. It was here that we met a group of men from the Columbus, Ohio, area who called themselves "Minutemen." They were, all of them, men who were ready to stand for Christ at any minute, anywhere! Our hearts were knit together during those exciting weeks.

They joined us in Washington, D.C., where we conducted an Ecclesiastical Court at the Supreme Court in October of 2003. We declared that the Supreme Court of the United States of America was in contempt of the Court of Almighty God and we burned six abominable Supreme Court decisions right on the front steps. Several of us would have been placed in federal prison for 60 days had it not been for the Minutemen from Ohio who courageously intervened and surrounded us.

It was then that I knew God was calling us to hold our national event in Ohio. We had been asking God for clear direction concerning our national event, and on that day at the Supreme Court, we got it! God made it clear that these were the kind of men who would storm the gates of hell until they gave way in the Name of Jesus! Yes, these were the kind of men through whom He could show Himself strong.

Little did any of us know the huge political ramifications the State of Ohio would play in the upcoming Presidential election. We never gave it a second thought. Though we were planning our way, God was directing our steps. He knew where He wanted us.

Mary Ellen Urmin tried her very best to find us a church that would host us in Columbus. Some made commitments, only later to change their minds. God had something better planned for us. We always say that "the theology in the church house needs to be made biography in the streets." That is exactly what God had in mind! He wanted us to take this Gospel battle to the streets and keep it in the streets. Mary Ellen got us permits to meet at City Hall every night for our rallies. What an incredible opportunity! We held an open-air Gospel proclamation for an entire week in the capital city of Ohio – the pivotal state (the linchpin) of this year’s Presidential election.

Not only that, Jesus used His avowed enemies (the pro-abortion crew, the homosexual activists, and Muslims) to help us paint this incredible picture. That’s right! Every night they came to our rallies spewing their vile stuff, and every night they received the powerful love of God through His Word and our deeds. We loved them, and they just couldn’t get over that. I remember well our last night in Columbus. Many of the pro-aborts and homosexuals asked us to join them to have pictures taken. They hugged us as we said our good-byes. Can you imagine? Jesus uses even His enemies to bring Him praise.

So there it was for the entire world to see this past summer. We lived out in the streets of Columbus a picture of the cultural war going on for the heart of our nation. This was an incredible picture being drawn of the battle between two conflicting world views – the seed of the serpent vs. the seed of the woman. Long before the world would see it played out in our Presidential election, God gave us the privilege of living this battle out in the streets of Columbus.

The national event demonstrated clearly the fundamental differences that were going to be seen on November 2, 2004, between the red states (those who voted for Bush) and the blue states (those who voted for Kerry). But this issue was most vividly portrayed when one sees the breakdown between the red counties and the blue counties – America is all red! This election wasn’t about the war in Iraq, nor was it about the economy. It was all about who is Lord and whose laws reign.

We dealt with abortion – there is an insurmountable chasm that exists between the red counties and the blue counties here. We dealt with the horrible and enslaving sin of homosexuality – there is an insurmountable chasm that exists between the red counties and the blue counties here. We confronted the murderous lie of Islam head-on with the liberating Gospel of Jesus Christ. Believe it or not, there is even an insurmountable chasm that exists between the red counties and the blue counties here. Why?

All three of these issues are moral issues. They are physical manifestations of the spiritual battle that is raging in the heavens (the seed of the serpent vs. the seed of the woman). They clearly mark our cultural divide. All require us to choose whose side we are on. There is no possibility of compromise or finding "common ground." It is either Jesus or the devil, life or death, liberty or slavery.

By land (we walked over 1800 miles to get to Columbus), by air (we had five consecutive days of an airplane flying over the city of Columbus with Gospel messages), and by sea (the ever present reminder of Columbus’s ship the Santa Maria on the Scioto River next to City Hall), we came to Columbus to paint a picture (a living parable) of the real battle that is going on for the heart of our nation.

Yes, God directed us to Ohio so that He could make a statement! He made that statement! Now it is up to you and me to shout it from the housetops.

My family and I celebrated Thanksgiving with Liz’s family in Georgia. While we were there, we sent out over 1400 letters to the "Who’s Who" in the Waco area business community. This mailer is the first installment of the "Operation: Shine The Light" campaign. This is a precursor to the greater mailer that will be sent to every home in our city. The following letter was sent along with the brochure that exposes the three main evils promoted by Planned Parenthood. We are asking the business community to rise up and demand the Waco Chamber of Commerce rescind Planned Parenthood’s membership. Please pray another tentacle of Planned Parenthood will be severed in our city as a result.

Dear Business Community Leader,

Just recently it came to our attention that the Waco Chamber of Commerce has been active in providing legitimacy to one of the most controversial organizations in our city, Planned Parenthood of Central Texas. Two matters have thus arisen. First, in the Chamber Xchange program, Planned Parenthood offered a 10% discount on all their "services," which includes abortion. Secondly, the Waco Chamber of Commerce was the chief sponsor of Planned Parenthood’s 65^th anniversary celebration in Waco on October 14.

Thankfully, the former situation has been righteously resolved and the abortion discount offer has been withdrawn. The latter situation, unfortunately, continues to give an implicit endorsement to Planned Parenthood in our city. Thus, the reason for contacting you. The Waco Chamber of Commerce fawned over the so-called "accomplishments" of Planned Parenthood. Missing, of course, are the "achievements" chronicled in the brochure we have included.

There are other evils associated with Planned Parenthood, such as the promotion of youth promiscuity with their www.teenwire.com web site. We must keep in mind, they need to influence our children towards sexual promiscuity in order to justify their "services." This ensures their birth control and abortion "business" will have future clients.

There is also an undisputed link between abortion and some forms of birth control that Planned Parenthood peddles and the spread of different cancers among unsuspecting women. To those of you who support "Race for the Cure," you might want to ask them why they irresponsibly give funds to Planned Parenthood when study after study shows this dangerous connection. If our goal is to diminish the risk and find the cure, perhaps we can start by not giving much needed funds to an organization whose practice is known to advance breast cancer among women.

The three evils mentioned in the brochure, however, are the most disturbing. We ask that you would please read it. All the information is documented. If you agree that the brochure provides vital reasons for concern, we ask you to contact the Waco Chamber of Commerce and ask the leadership to rescind the membership of Planned Parenthood of Central Texas. This is precisely what the Chamber of Commerce in Bryan/College Station did after their Planned Parenthood began aborting the unborn in their community. The actual meeting where Planned Parenthood was removed by a vote of 20-1 occurred on Tuesday, December 15, 1998. We thank you for considering the facts we present and the course of action that would best serve our community. There should be no support given to anyone who supports Planned Parenthood.

IN KING JESUS’ SERVICE,

Rev. Rusty Lee Thomas
Founder and Director, Elijah Ministries
Assistant Director, Operation Save America,
Founder and Director, Kingdom Leadership Institute
 

By God’s grace and through the perseverance of some local saints, the city of Waco has been rocked. For one week, Nov. 29th-Dec. 3rd, about thirty Christians took the Gospel of the Kingdom to the gates of the schools. Many schools were impacted, either from within or from without (there were students that took our materials and passed them out in their perspective schools. It created quite a stir). Each day, two different teams, showed up at University High and Waco High School. Only time and eternity will reveal what transpired during this phenomenal week.

Our first day’s lesson dealt with the revelation of God’s word, the Bible. We passed out several hundreds tracts. The tract was called "The Indestructible Book." We challenged the students with these premises, the Bible and Christianity are not some truths out of many truths, they are the truth with a capital T. Your belief system, no matter how sincere, does not determine truth. God’s word is to determine man’s belief system. Everyone may have a right to their opinion, but not every opinion is right. Truth is truth, no matter if anyone believes it and a lie is a lie, no matter how many believe it.

The second day was America’s Christian History lesson. Our message challenged the young people to realize that there are time-honored reasons why America is the most blessed, freest, and most prosperous nation in the long bloody history of man. This blessed condition is not a coincidence and did not happen in a vacuum. Christianity and its Biblical principles were the foundation that supplied the basis for our laws, government, public policy, and our education. In recent decades our nation has denied our godly heritage and as a result our nation is resorting back to the brutal darkness of paganism. We encouraged the young people to return to the God of our Fathers and His Biblical principles, in order to reconnect to the godly root system that has served us so well in our nation’s history.

The third day sparks began to fly. We noticed the world and its ungodly culture doesn’t mind general Christianity, especially, if it remains cloistered in our church buildings. But "Katie bar the door" if Christianity comes out of the closet and applies God’s word specifically to the sins, abominations, and perversions that are destroying America. Thus the third day was devoted to exposing the horrible truth that is called abortion. We passed out a beautiful, well-crafted brochure put out by the Missionaries To The Pre-born. It is called "The American Holocaust Photo Display." It provided a Christian defense for showing the bloody photographs of the first, second, and third trimester murders of the preborn. The brochure is designed to help end the censorship of the American press. The media that refuses to demonstrate to the American people what exactly a preborn child looks like after he or she has been in the hands of an abortionist.

Part of the brochure declared we must be "Faithful to Christ." It went on to explain, "Some say our photos are disgusting and hurt our Christian witness. Our response: have you ever seen a pretty picture of a murder? Murder is disgusting; abortion is murder; therefore, our pictures are disgusting. Beyond that, what hurts our Christian witness more-being silent while our neighbor is unjustly killed or exposing the atrocities being committed against our neighbor (Ephesians 5:11)?

Our prayer is that people would be moved with compassion for the helpless preborn when they see these photographs and act to see this bloodshed outlawed. Otherwise, God will use His sword justice and bring retribution upon a nation of people whose hands are covered with blood." Needless to say, the effect was overwhelming.

The fourth day dealt with the sin and abomination of homosexuality. Though my team faced some minor altercations, Pastor Ronnie Holmes and his Youth Pastor Joe Rodriguez of Church of the Open Door experienced an uproar and a near riot over at Waco High School. A man who claimed to be a "Christian" with homosexual leanings was outraged. He screamed at the kids to not take the Gospel materials. He was so agitated that he formed a counter-protest. Goths, sodomites, and Muslims came together against the Lord and His anointed. It never fails to amaze me how Jesus divides His friends and unites His enemies.

Somehow the media caught wind of this conflict at the gates of the schools and came out to investigate. The first TV report was somewhat disconcerting. They interviewed all the enemies of the cross that publicly condemned Christians who spoke the truth in love to a generation that is lost and dying. The next day all three TV networks and the Waco Tribune Herald, our local newspaper, covered the growing controversy. It made front page news, plus it was the top story on two of the TV networks. These reports were much more just and accurate. It showed interviews with students. One stated that before we came to the school they never discussed abortion and homosexuality. The scene then shifted to a faithful laborer, Tom Brady, who clapped his hands and declared, "Bravo, mission accomplished!" From there, the TV cameras centered in on Pastor Joe Rodriguez who was preaching to about two hundred students declaring these words, "We are here to show you God’s love and the truth of His holy word." This declaration went throughout the Central Texas area. It was awesome!

The final day of the "God Is Going Back To School" campaign consisted of sharing God’s great salvation amongst men. We passed out a tract based on the Ten Commandments that it called "Word’s To Live By." This tract challenges people to find out if they are good enough to go to Heaven. In order to know, we lead them through a test based upon God’s Law. As they go through each of the Ten Commandments, it becomes painfully obvious that they have failed the test, sinned, stand condemned, and are on their way to hell.

As the students came and took the materials, our message was, "Today is the final exam, the final test. This tract asks one of the most important questions in life, are you good enough to go to heaven? In other words, the Bible emphatically teaches that there is a heaven to gain and a hell to shun. How is it possible for sinful man to escape hell and have the blessed assurance of securing a place in God’s eternal paradise? We do not want to leave that to chance. This vital issue must be settled in the here and now. We do not want to wait for death to settle it for us." Many eyes grew big as this new challenge was given and the offer of God’s saving grace through Jesus Christ our Lord was extended as the answer to the battle for their souls.

After the school outreach we prepared to perform the drama "Sammy." Each day we invited the young people to come and witness this anointed production that was written to speak specifically to their generation. We were pleasantly surprised to find that some took us up on the offer. The first night eight souls responded to the call to surrender their lives to the Lord ship of Jesus Christ. The cast and crew rejoiced to see tears of repentance by those who experienced the tug of the Lord upon their hearts.

The final performance was Sunday, December 5th. Pastor Ronnie Holmes gave the altar call to a much greater audience. About thirteen souls responded to the call of God. The presence of God was so thick through the performance and the altar ministry that there were times when I was performing my role as an attorney that I could not stop the tears from streaming down my face.

After presenting the saving grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, I had the privilege of bringing a charge to all the young people in the congregation that night. The altar was filled. I looked them in the eye and sincerely repented on the behalf of the previous generations that have failed God, our nation, and their generation. They are bearing the brunt of our folly, idolatry, and perversions. All the spiritual landmarks and boundaries are gone, and their generation is vulnerable to the onslaught of evil and God’s judgment upon our wicked and spoiled nation. I pleaded with them to not make the same mistakes, errors, and sins our generation has bequeathed to them. It is time for a gentle revolution, a spiritual, moral, and godly revolution. I challenged them not be ashamed of the Gospel of the Kingdom for it is the power of God unto salvation. The final call was to bring their Bibles back to school, pray, and deliver God’s word to the students who are involved in the humanistic temples that banned God’s word years ago. From all the the reports since then, it appears that many took it to heart and the "Gentle Revolution" is on in the city of Waco.

Please receive this Bible Reading Schedule and use it to set up your family altar for the New Year. Feel free to copy and distribute to friends, family, and your Church. We love you and pray you all have a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year in God’s Kingdom!

IN KING JESUS' SERVICE,