How Do We Heal Our Nation?

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Now with extremely limited availability, contact your local retailer for inventory information. Hi, I'm Joanne Vigner, Memaw with It's Storytime Memaw, an answered prayer for stories that point children to God on the Truth Network for Kids. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds.

Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening to the Truth Podcast Network. of the Citizens for America Foundation, Dr. Chris Hughes. Never before in our nation's history have we seen the problems that we see in our nation today. It's crazy, and it's time to bring a healing back to our nation.

How do we do that? Well, my guest today will share with us the steps we need to take to heal our nation as they're laid out in his book, Never Stop, Teaching and Leading to Help Heal a Nation. I'm Chris Hughes, and I want to welcome you to Christian Perspective. We're glad that you joined us here on the Christian Perspective, and I thank you for being with us. Before we get started today, I want to encourage you to visit CitizensForAmericaFoundation.com, that's CitizensForAmericaFoundation.com, where you can learn more about the topics we cover on the show, and where you can sign up to get newsletter and email updates on things that are happening in our culture and in our nation. Of course, we want to remind you, we're taking a trip to Israel this December 26th. We'd love to have you join us as we walk in the footsteps of Jesus.

You can learn more at CitizensForAmericaFoundation.com. Well, my guest today is an award-winning Christian author. He's an artist, which I recently learned when we were having nights together recently. He's an architect, he's a great public speaker and educator, he's an international collaborator, and he is driven by his calling to share God's Word through his life experiences and those of others. And if you have an event coming up and you're looking for a speaker, maybe you have your own podcast or radio show, we'd love to have you learn more about Herb Burns and how he can come and share the special message that God has given him to your audience. He's also the co-host of a well-known podcast. If you haven't listened to it, you need to check it out, and I'm sure he'll share with us how we can find the podcast later on. His podcast is called Three Men for Thee. I've had the privilege of being on his show. It's a great show, and you need to put them in your system where you are notified when they have new shows released, so you can download their show and listen.

It's called Three Men for Thee. Well, Herb Burns, welcome to The Christian Perspective. We're glad to have you today. Chris, thank you so much for the opportunity to share with your listeners and blessings to you for the mission that you're on and spreading the word about what Christians can do in these times.

Well, I was just looking at some of my email and news updates before we got on the show, and it's just crazy what is happening around our nation today. Herb, before we dive into your book, I always like our audience to get to know our guests a little bit, so can you tell us a little bit about you, and then specifically, if you don't mind, and I didn't ask you this before the show, but I'd love for our listeners to learn how our guests came to know Jesus. Because we all get to know Jesus, and the way to heaven is the only way to heaven is through Jesus Christ and his saving grace, but a lot of us learn about him in different ways, and it's interesting. I really enjoy learning how different people got saved and how they learned and realized they needed the saving grace of Jesus. So tell us a little bit about you.

Well, thanks, Chris. As you mentioned, I'm an architect by profession. For almost 40 years, I was teaching in higher education at the college level, teaching architecture, started an interior design program, then later started a radio TV program at the college, then broke away from architecture and started teaching animation and game design. I was asked to serve as dean of engineering for a while and actually coordinated the college's first international partnership with the Republic of Belarus and an architecture school over there, and then led them to two more international cooperation agreements. But as far as me being a Christian, well, I was accepting Christ at a very early age.

My cousin and I accepted Christ when we were in our teens, but there's always time for a rebirth, and that rebirth happened to me when I was teaching at the college. As an academic educator, we're always trying to build our credentials up. So there was something I was trying to do, and it took about several months to prepare this application. I had to get the president's approval, my dean's approval, and do this huge study of how the outcomes are going to work. Well, the first year I applied, I failed.

Being a competitor, I tried again the next year, had to ask the president a second time, and I failed in the application the second time. I got upset. I threw my hands on my desk and said, God, I give up. If it's not your will, it will not be done, and I'm not going to pursue this anymore, and I have to quit saying, God, what can you do for me, but God, what can I do for you?

And at that moment, he said, well, Herb, how about using your talents to spread my word? And my response was, well, you know, I'm a Christian. I go to church every Sunday. I go to Sunday school. I read in the Bible. But you know, I've never read your Bible from beginning to end. So my first book was called Route 66, and that was my journey of reading the Bible from Genesis to Revelations. And after I finished each book of the Bible, what moved me the most, I did a painting of it, a little context of that book of the Bible and how you apply it in the world today. And when I finished that book, I said, what's next?

He said, don't you understand? Never stop. So that became the genesis for my next three books.

Never stop in a series. So, Chris, being a Christian author was never on my radar until there was that aha moment in my life where God said, time to tune in, Mr. Burns. It's amazing how God can get our attention. You know, like you, I was saved at an early age and, you know, like you, I went to church and get all those things. But it really wasn't until I was in my early 30s that God kind of hit me upside the head and said, you know, just like he told you, you've got certain talents, you're not using them for, you know, for the purpose of which I gave them to you. And I really regret the years that I, I mean, I played church.

Like a lot of people that are probably listening right now, you know, being a Christian is not just showing up to church on Sunday or even just reading your Bible every day, but it's having a true relationship with Jesus and doing the things that he's called us to do. And boy, since she started doing that, Herb, you have really, God's used you in mighty ways. You have so many talents recently learned. I didn't realize the artist that you are. And God's given you so many abilities.

And I thank you that you're using them now for his kingdom and his glory and using them to reach other people. So how did you come up with the idea of because you said you've got this series of never stop. What really led to that? And do you think it'll end with with the books that you have now? Are you going to continue that series or start a new series? What's next? And how do we get there?

Well, that's a good question, Chris. So after I finished the Route 66, my next book was never stop asking, discovering and sharing. In those three words, ask, discover and share have changed people's lives. So I take people through a whole series of lessons on how to find out about your family. You know, there are things we don't know about our grandparents unless we ask.

You know, in the workplace, you don't know if you can grow your department or your division unless you ask someone. And then you discover, you know, the process of how to make a successful mission a reality. And then you can share those lessons with others. So that was the first book. And then I was watching TV one day, and I was looking at President Trump's speech at Mount Rushmore. And I was so moved when he was talking about the American patriots, the sacrifices during the revolution that were made for our nation. And I'm just thinking, you know, so many of the young people today don't even know the history of America. It's not being taught to them in high school. So my book, Never Stop Teaching, Leading, Help Heal Our Nation, the first section of the book, takes the readers through an amazing history of our country from 1776 to 2020, and highlights all the important events that took place in 10 year periods, evolving wars, evolving Christianity, inventions, what's happening in churches. So I outline all of this so that young people will have a history to look at and ask questions about our history, because that's the foundation. If I can interrupt you, that is so important today is I don't think that the true history of our nation is being taught. Well, no, it's not in most public schools today, and particularly the Christian heritage of our nation. I think that kids are kind of being brainwashed today to be taught that our nation wasn't a Christian nation. I mean, that our founding fathers were not Christians. But as you never heard, I mean, many of our family documents are straight out of the Bible. I mean, our Constitution really comes from the Old Testament and the rules and laws that God set out for his people. And do you think it's important for our people to understand that today and why?

Oh, absolutely. It's extremely important. If we don't understand our history, we don't know what the foundation is for us for the future. So, you know, as an architect, I have to understand what the soil is.

If I don't understand the ingredients of the soil, I cannot build a proper foundation to construct a building on that soil. If we don't understand our history, we cannot construct a proper foundation for our government to exist. Well, I agree. I mean, I just looked at the last 20 years of really how that history has just been eroded and pushed away. And it's shocking.

And we're seeing the result of a whole generation now that doesn't understand that. Folks, we're talking to Herb Burns. He's an author, an educator, an architect, an artist, and so much more. We're talking about his book, Never Stop Teaching and Leading to Help Heal Our Nation. We're going to take a quick commercial break and come back where he'll learn more about his book and how it can impact your life and make a difference in our nation today. Stick around.

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This December, join nationally syndicated radio host and founder of the Citizens for America Foundation, Dr. Chris Hughes, on a life-changing trip to Israel. It's one of the world's oldest and most fascinating travel destinations. Be faithful from all over the world for thousands of years. Visit Jerusalem's religious quarters and explore Christianity's most treasured religious sites, like the Wailing Wall, the Dome of the Rock, and the Via Dolorosa. Walk with Chris through the winding alleyways of Nazareth's Old City and visit ancient Bethlehem, the place of our Savior's birth. Float in the Dead Sea, visit the Sea of Galilee and the Jewish fortress of Masada. Be firsthand where the events of the Bible took place.

Touring Israel with Dr. Chris Hughes is a travel odyssey like no other. Visit citizensforamericafoundation.com and get ready for an unforgettable trip and memories that will last a lifetime. History was made on today's date.

Stay tuned for an American Minute with Bill Federer. On August 8, 1974, President Richard Nixon chose to resign, the first president ever to do so, rather than put the country through the ordeal of an impeachment. In a televised address, he said, To continue to fight for my personal vindication would totally absorb the time and attention of the President and the Congress. In a private farewell to his cabinet, President Nixon stated, Yes, for personal gain?

Never. I can only say to each one of you, we come from many faiths, but really the same God. You will be in our hearts and in our prayers. This has been an American Minute with Bill Federer. For a free transcript, call American Minute at 1-888-USA-WORD.

Welcome back to Christian Perspective. My guest today is Herb Burns. Herb had me with a guest on his podcast a couple years ago. We met, I think, at the Salt and Light Conference. And by the way, the Salt and Light Conference is coming up in September.

I think it's September 24th. It's going to be in the Charlotte, North Carolina area, no matter where you are around the country. It's a great Christian Conference that starts, I think, in a park Friday night, and then a lot of great speakers throughout the day. I hope you would search Salt and Light, North Carolina Salt and Light Conference. We'd love to see you there.

I think Herb will be there and I'll be there. Herb, I want to get back to your book, because I think it's fascinating of how you took a look at our nation. And we were talking about before the commercial break how important history is. And that's something that, as Citizens for America, that we're really pushing. One thing that we hope to gear up soon is a program where, we're basically a fellowship program where high school history teachers can enter a 10-month, very rigorous course where we teach them, they might already even have a Master's or Doctorate degree, but we specifically train them in the areas of the Christian heritage of our nation. And it's so important for us to realize where our nation comes from, because as laws are being passed today, young people are like, why do we do this, or why do we do that?

Well, you would understand better if you understood the history of our nation. So your book talks about history, and then you also talk about family, right? That's correct, and that's so extremely important. If we look at what's happening in families today, we need to build a strong foundation for family life. Think of the verse in the Bible, Proverbs 22, 6, train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it. So as parents, it's our responsibility to train our children in a way that God would have us do that. And there's so many things that we can teach our children, we can teach them to be honest, how to share, we can teach our children what kindness means, we need to teach our children at an early age how to take care of themselves, what a schedule means. So often in today's times, kids wake up and they just go do their thing. They need to have responsibilities in their life at an early age so that they understand the importance of those responsibilities. And when they become adult, they can take on responsibilities because they've done it as a child. Yeah, I think that we have become a society, in large part, where we do everything for our kids. And we've now kind of raised a generation that doesn't see responsibility for anything, and that's not true of all kids in our society today, but a lot of kids today just want everything handed to them or given to them, and that's a failure that we've had as parents. Particularly my generation, Herb, I think a lot of us have not done what we should when it comes to parenting and we haven't followed God's word. And what you're talking about is teaching our kids responsibility is really biblical.

So how do you think we, and I'm not sure if you addressed this in the book, so how do we get back to that? How do we get back to having the family that God intended for us, and do you think that will help change our nation if it happens? Well, you know, we have to be Christian families to begin with. So there's so many families that have children that I know personally myself that are not going to church, that are not taking their children to church.

We've got to get this population back into church somehow, and boy I wish I knew the answer to that. Because once the children are in church, they're meeting with other children. And you know, if you go look at Colossians 3.20, Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. So we have to have these biblical teachings to our children so that they'll know what is expected of them in terms of being a Christian, what Christ would want them to do.

And it's just so important that we do take our families to church and that we be involved with our children. We work with them, we teach them things. You know, I regret that I didn't teach my sons more how to work on a car with me.

I would just go out and change the spark plugs myself. But when I was younger, somebody taught me how to do it. So we need to engage our children in adult responsibilities so that when they become adults, they will understand what those responsibilities are all about.

Well, you're stepping on my toes. Mack, I guess about three years before my daughter graduated from high school, I started asking friends who had kind of gone before me, and I think it's important for us to have mentors in my life, you know, what are the things in your life, I'd ask them, what are the things that we need to teach our kids before they get out in the real world? And practical things like you're talking about, I mean, I'm not really, I can hardly drive an hour. I'm not a handyman.

But those things do, you know, those things that they're going to need in life. So my 18-year-old son is away at an internship. I'm going to get in trouble for telling this. This summer, and someone's letting him have a room in their house, but one of his responsibilities is to mow grass. Well, we don't own a lawn mower. And we were a military family for many years, and the base, you know, cut our grass. So we never owned a lawn mower. And where I live in the mountains now, you really need kind of specialized equipment because my yard is so steep to mow grass.

So I have somebody that does that for us that has the right equipment. And I never thought about, you know, I need to teach him how to mow grass. So a couple weeks ago, he called me like, Dad, she wants me to mow the grass.

So he had ridden a riding lawn mower, but he never, you know, used a push lawn mower. So I'm on the phone trying to teach him, you know, this is how you push the choke, and you got to pull the cord and all that. And it hit me, you know, I did all these other things that I thought I was preparing him for, and I never even taught him how to mow grass. And it, you know, kind of, I was ashamed of myself. So I know that there are more important things to teach, but I get the point that you're saying, you know, we need to train up the next generation. So maybe if there are fathers or even mothers out there that are like me, that might not be good at certain things. That's another reason that we should go to church, Herb, is there's community. I mean, church is not just about sitting there on a Sunday morning, and certainly we go, we need to worship and praise God. And I think it's also about having, you know,