 But anyway, so Dana was talking to me today at lunch about some things, about some spiritual matters, and I told Dana this is stuff that our entire Oathkeeper group could benefit from, and ask her if she would come and speak to us tonight, and she agreed. So I present our Oathkeeper Dana. Laura Starr, I'd have to say this is the first time I've ever done this, so be with me. I think I'm going to read the song that I couldn't pull up on the internet really quick, because as I was pulling out of the parking lot, the song was on the radio, Joy FM. I don't know if you all are familiar with it, 991, if you want to be uplifted, that's the thing to listen to. And it's a song by Matthew West called Do Something. It says, I woke up this morning and saw a world full of trouble. Now, I thought how we'd ever get so far down. It's never going to turn around, so I turned my eyes to heaven and thought, God, why don't you do something? Well, I just couldn't bear the thought of people living in poverty and children sold into slavery. The thought disgusted me, so I shook my fist to heaven and said, God, why don't you do something? He said, I did. I created you. Not us, then who? And if not me and you, right now, it's a time for us to do something. If not now, then when? We will see an end to all this pain. It's not enough to do something. It's time for us to do something. And so I'm tired of talking about all, how, or about how all, I'm sorry, about how we are God's hands and feet, but it's easier to say than to be. Live like angels of apathy who tell ourselves, it's alright, somebody else will do something. Well, I don't know about you, but I'm sick and tired of the life with no desire. I don't want a flame, I want a fire. I want to be the one who stands up and says, I'm going to do something. We're the salt of the earth, we're the city on a hill, but we're never going to change the world by standing still. No, we won't stand still. That just really blessed my heart because it just, that was Mark right there in a nutshell that I'm talking about Mark Mesmer. He was always doing something for the cause of liberty and our freedoms. So to what I prepared, Doc asked me earlier, you know, is this too short a notice? And I'm like, no, I was prayed for last week, you know, I knew that I'd be speaking to people, whether it be one-on-one or something, and I was prayed over, so I fully believe that God would give me something for you guys today. So I went home and prayed about it, and this is what came out. So, I know almost everybody here, it's a small group today, but usually there's a crowd and there's always a lot of people I don't know. So for those of you who don't know me, my name's Dana Butler. I'm married to Frank over there, a former Marine and Oathkeeper. Of course, once a Marine, always a Marine. I'm an ordained minister and have been on three mission trips to China with Frank on two trips. Most of my life, including now, my occupation has been a waitress. And I don't know who else here. I don't want to offend anybody. I want to say that Oathkeepers is open to all men and women, no matter of your race or religion. But I was asked to speak tonight and I just want to share my heart a little bit. When I first heard the news about Mark, I was shocked, floored and brokenhearted. Actually, I opened up the email and I was in bed, it was on my phone, and I usually looked for stuff from my mom right before I go to bed and I saw something, you know, had his name on it, so I opened it and I just started crying. I woke Frank up, kind of freaked him out in the middle of the night, so I didn't know what broke my heart so much was that I didn't know for sure if he was a Christian. And I was very convicted that, you know, I was telling Pat, I think, that we went out for a snack the other night after God and Country. And our pastor, maybe it was a room, I don't remember, has been teaching a sermon called Taking it to the Streets, or a group of sermons. And in the sanctuary he's teaching about, it's like the locker room and he's given us this message but it shouldn't just stay in the sanctuary. We'd go out to work, we'd go to Walmart, we'd go wherever we go and we should be taking the message to the streets and be sensitive to people's needs and if they look like they need someone to talk to or someone to pray over them, we should offer that. And I've been convicted over that over the past few years, God's really been dealing with my heart and as a waitress, I'm kind of the praying waitress. I'm very careful, you know, I mean, in this nation anything can happen and you can lose your job but I'm very sensitive to the spirit and there are times I feel like praying for people and I don't because I feel like I shouldn't, or at least not openly. And there are other times that I ask them, you know, what's going on and then I'll ask them if I can pray for them and I just lay my hands on pray for them right there. A lot of them don't expect that to happen, they think I'm going to go home and pray but I've learned if I'm going to offer, I'm going to do it when I'm convicted to do it and so we're supposed to be a light to the world and we're supposed to attract people to us by the light within us but where's that fine line where we ask people if they know Jesus and, you know, Mark was a lover of the Constitution and I assumed he was a Christian because, you know, most of us that love the Constitution you should know it was written mostly by Christian leaders not all of them but most of them and they were using the Bible as a format but I never asked him so I wasn't sure and it just broke my heart because I couldn't imagine, you know, like the poem we heard today, life is but a dash this is a dash and I couldn't imagine spending an eternity without that magnetic smile and personality so I love God and I guess you can tell I love people and I know he loves us and he created us for relationships he's a relational God a little bit of background, I grew up in church that was not that was all about religion and they taught me about Jesus but never taught me about a relationship with him and as a teen my mother decided to read the Bible for herself and then she sought out different Christian religions and she saw that many of them chose and picked what they wanted to teach about but they never taught the whole message so at one point she found a non-denominational church that loved on people and taught the whole book and so she started taking us there and that's when I first heard about a personal relationship with Jesus I think the best time I ever heard it described was one of my mission trips to China and I guess I should change a name because to protect his, let's just say a friend of mine in China described to me that there's this door and the Three Self Church in China teaches here's the door, this is this side of the door, this edge of the door, this edge of the door but they never teach you how to go through the door and that's just totally described a lot of our denominational churches here in America they teach you all about Jesus but they don't teach you about a relationship with him and as we heard from Pastor Troy today he told us that statistics tell us that 100% of us will die and the Bible says it's appointed on demand to die once the question is where will we go when we die and Romans, I'm going to go down the same road he went down today that all have sinned and Romans it says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God and then later it talks about the wages of sin as death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ and then later again it says if you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that he raised him from the dead that you will be saved and by believing in your heart you're made right with God and by professing it and openly declaring it with your mouth that you're saved and I believe as it says later in Romans that there's nothing that can separate us from the love of God it says I'm convinced that nothing, Paul wrote this that nothing can ever separate us from God's love neither life nor death, neither angels nor demons fears for the day or worries for tomorrow not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love no power in the sky above or in the earth below indeed nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that it's revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord and I believe if we live as Christ's followers that we have priorities, we place God first we take first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added on us and then the second priority is our self so while we're seeking him first and taking care of ourselves like most of us know if mom ain't happy, nobody's happy so you gotta take care of yourself and then your family which your spouse comes first, then your children and then so forth and then your country and if we get those priorities right and we're right with God it all flows our relationship flow and our passion will flow for our relationships in our country we heard many stories today and I hope to hear a few more tonight about Mark and our personal stories about him I think you, I know he was a passionate lover of his family that was very very obvious and he had a great love for people and he had a contagious smile he was a man of integrity who loved people he loved liberty and he loved this nation and I think perhaps Mark was missing the hope that we have in Jesus and placing God first and he might not have walked with Jesus but my hope is that he called out to him in the end and my prayer is that each one of you that listens to that tug on your heart ask Jesus in if you haven't already and my heart's desire is when all is said and done and we'll be spending eternity together in heaven a place of peace and joy without sickness or pain that we'll all be there together and shortly, I guess a little story shortly after I met Pat what, a couple years ago, a year and a half ago three things I told him I'm willing to die for for God, my family, and my country and Lord willing I won't have to but if I do, I'll be there in a better place than I am here and I hope to be there with each one of you and I think one of my favorite stories today I've told about Mark I guess maybe I don't remember the gentleman's name who got up there but he said he was the debater and I don't even remember the instance of what they were debating but they were debating opposing sides and Mark had said we can agree to disagree and then he said something to the fact that later the guy came up shook his hand and thanked him and Mark said you're welcome with a smile and it's like that's how we gotta love on people we gotta first of all go in the world and sign the light of Christ but we have to promote our cause with grace as well we can't shove it down to people's throat there's so many things that make us angry righteous anger rise up in us God says be angry without sinning so to be able to tell people about the problems with this nation with grace and the problems that we're going through and help to lead them into the liberty cause and we can honor Mark by leading him into the liberty cause with a smile on our face and grace in our heart I guess I don't know if you know this Dana but you were reciting that song on Mark's Facebook page are you aware of okay on his Facebook page on his what do you call that picture that you have on top of your Facebook page see a profile picture there was a picture of a patron 1775 militia lined up there and the words on that said if not now when and if not who and if not who if not me me if not you alright everybody make sure you sign the card I just wanted to say something about Mark and then after Patrick if anybody else wants to get out and say something go ahead after Patrick because that's all we have on the agenda for tonight yeah and you know it pertains to Mark's situation but it applies to all of us and it applies to this fight that we're in and we all come across it different people that we come in contact with because Christians don't want to get into the political work how many people have heard Christians say oh I don't do politics you know I'm just going to pray well pray's good that pays the way but action takes the land and you got to get out there and do it so but so they won't get involved in the politics and then the people over here that are involved they don't want to hang out with the people from church because they're not helping and they're all holding role and they become really disenfranchised from the body of believers and you know I have this awesome book it's just quotes from the founders Edmund Burke said if you want to repeat history or if you don't know history you're going to repeat it and George Washington said and you know people don't want to go to 90% of the reason why people don't go to church is because Christians you know so let's stop being doing all the jabberjohn and start living the work if you believe in it just live it and people will watch it you know I come from drugs alcohol fighting bar brawl and womenizing and when I stopped doing all that people started saying what's up with you so they were coming to me I didn't have to go to them they said Brandon come on let's go to the block house I said I don't go to the block house no more I go to God's house come on get me up to them so you know we have to find a way and whether we are and again I don't care who's born again or who's Pentecost or who's Catholic it doesn't matter a pastor nailed it he said it's all about you and Jesus you know getting it right it ain't got nothing to do with a building or a book or a candle or nothing it's about you and Jesus getting it right and so if we do that now when we look back in history and I'm going to get to preach it here in a minute so I'll slow back but if you look in the history these men were men of God 52 of the 56 and I think the ones that Ragnostics said but if we go over and pray it'll get right so you know the first two they go to is Jefferson and Franklin and if you just read what they wrote I mean these guys Jefferson said we got to print Bibles and put them into schools I mean so if you're in the political fight but you don't go to church find a good one to check it out because this is where let me read you what George Washington said I think it was George no it was Thomas Jefferson in the Leonard did somebody he said had the doctrines of Jesus been preached always as purely as they came from the lips of Jesus and that's what it means to be a Christian to be Christ like so if we preached as purely as they came from his lips the whole civilized world will be Christians right now if we if we act it accordingly and we're the believers that we claim we are stop being religious and running the people out but you can't come in here you got some dirty boots guy you got a pair of shoes you can wear to church no you can wear them here go to that church you know what I'm saying because that's when you're gonna that's the kind of people and I was telling these guys you know what these people that are in this fight these soldiers who fought for our country if they're not Christians they're not Christians because of you these people who fight they have honor they have integrity they have everything it takes to be the best Christians there's honor there's depth and and value in being the Christian that America was and we ain't so good anymore and if we started being that Christian then Patriots and I wrote a thing it was called Christians and Patriots because now they're kind of separated how many family reunions or functions have you gone to and said don't talk about politics or religion that was the beginning of the separation of America that's what bound the fabric and the foundation of America was because Christians and politics were together our faith and our you know he was talking about the the Constitution they pulled that directly out of the Bible you can go back to separation of powers that's out of Exodus and Moses when he they created the legislative branch it was when Moses was naming tens and then they named hundreds and then they named thousands so he didn't have to deal with I mean everything the origins come straight out of the Bible and so they separated that force and it became weaker and we all know because we're on the front lines they're dividing us by color finance unions I mean everything anything they can do to divide us and they didn't call us United States of America because it rhymed I mean they called it that because we were united in one thing and that's liberty and liberty is you know there's a difference between freedom and liberty I have the freedom to pull out and shoot sorry Frank Frank right now but I have liberty I have the morals and the virtues and values I think I'm quicker to not do it so we have the freedom we have liberty because we have morals and we know not to do that stuff but we learn our morals and our virtues and stuff from the Bible so if no matter what side you're on the Christians have to be less talking and more doing and getting out and I'm hitting my church heavy you know and my pastor is behind me he's actually we've moved our God and country meeting somebody asked me about that to Wednesday night right after potluck dinner that's some valuable real estate because you can get some people up here for some pot roast you can get some people up for some coffee and banana pudding or whatever and then we just go into God and country at seven o'clock and for him to allow us to have that meeting at that time is awesome because we can get all you got to do is get a little bit of knowledge and it's going to trip something you know you're not going to learn everything and one deal but we got to be better get out and as Christians and getting involved in our political obligations and then the people that are there you're going to rub off on them you know not because you're doing a bunch of talking because when you do things honorable like Mark you know when you're a good man and a woman and standing up for what's right and what's good and they see the church out they'll say that's something that I can belong to and then we're mixing and we're bringing that back together again and I got to say something because that man and woman thing it's not a man hole it's a person hole you know this politically correct stuff just got to be bottom mankind do we now call it man and woman kind it's a generic term that meant all of us so when we say a police man yeah it could be a woman I mean stop the political correct stuff political correctness is just splitting hairs well not just that it was designed by Mark or one of them guys to start the argument and get the division happening so that's about all I got regarding religion and politics I think Alexander de Tocqueville said it best he was basically the foreign observer and he said that he contrasted with Europe religion and politics and freedom were all at odds with each other but in America it was all one of the same can't have one without the others and he came to America like you said and traveled for weeks and months to find out why America's revolution worked and what made America and he said and I'll just say it most of you probably know it he said I traveled the warehouses, the factories, the farms it wasn't until I got into church that I realized what made America strong and it was because they were Christians they were biblical and so this stuff is all in the books you know I didn't read a book till I was like 48 years old and I've been consuming since 2009 and it just blows me away I can't stop I mean you wake up in the morning and you start reading because there's so much out there and that's why Edmund Burke said we repeat history because we don't know it if we knew it we would have the answers because we had this fight hundreds of thousands of years ago it's the same fight that keeps going it's sick looking and so all we got to do is find out who won and do what they did and what they did is they fought you know they believed in something one of the guys said it's in here and I can't find it but he said if they didn't have a fight let's draw the line we'll fight it right here I'm not going to go start it but I ain't going backwards either you know and we've got members of our oath keepers who have fought in battles and who have signed up and just got lucky and they didn't go a while but we got to be that people again and draw that line and say and you guys are that people