Tennessee legislators are calling for 31 days of prayer and fasting in The Volunteer State beginning July 1, imploring the state’s citizens to “seek God’s hand of mercy healing on Tennessee.”

The state’s lawmakers approved House Joint Resolution 803 overwhelmingly in a 27-1 vote in the Senate and in an 82-6 vote in the House.

Tennessee’s governor subsequently approved the resolution on April 16.

The proclamation mentions numerous ailments that place the state in need of God’s mercy — the pervasiveness of violent crime, human trafficking, drug addiction, and drunk driving; the 9,000 children in need of foster care; and corruption in the federal government that “stands to impact every Tennessean.”

“We recognize that God, as Creator and King of all Glory, has both the authority to judge and to bless nations or states,” the resolution declares, adding,

“We, as public servants in the Tennessee General Assembly, seek God’s Mercy upon our land and beseech Him to not withdraw His Hand of blessing from us. …

“We recognize our sins and shortcomings before Him and humbly ask His Forgiveness. …

“We ask the Lord Jesus to heal our land and remove the violence, human-trafficking, addiction, and corruption. We ask the that Holy Spirit fill our halls of government, our classrooms, our places of business, our churches, and our homes with peace, love, and joy.”

As something of a parlor game, Focus on the Family founder Dr. James Dobson has asked audiences over the years a seemingly simple and straightforward question:

“What was the first thing God created?”

Not surprisingly, most turn to the first sentence of the Bible:

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).

“Not exactly,” the child psychologist would reply, but then acknowledge, “It’s a bit of a trick question.”

Instead, Dr. Dobson directs audiences to Proverbs. “The Lord possessed me at the beginning of His work, the first of His acts of old. Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth” (8:22-23).

It’s “Wisdom” that is speaking — an essential and critical characteristic of God. It’s His point of view — and only a fool disregards or is disinterested in cultivating and obtaining that everlasting perspective.

At quick glance, it would seem that type of wisdom is in short supply these days. Social media is full of advice givers. As has been said, though, it’s usually served up by people trying to sell something we don’t need, hoping to convince us to buy something we can’t afford, in order to impress those we don’t even know.

Yet, God’s point of view is timeless and timely, helping us find answers to questions that aren’t always immediately evident.

The Republican National Convention (RNC) is two weeks away, July 15-18, which means the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin is getting ready to host it.

In preparation for the RNC, Milwaukee’s 100-year-old National Bakery & Deli decided to create cookies for the convention, as they have for the Milwaukee Bucks and the Milwaukee Brewers, the state’s NCAA and MBL sports teams.

The business even created “vaccine donuts” and donuts with Sen. Bernie Sanders’ picture on them, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The bakery has stated in the past, they try to “stay on trend and have fun with holidays and current events.” They typically commemorate important days such as Election Day, the Fourth of July, and both Father and Mother’s Day.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel stated that “National Bakery decided to create the cookies after attending a convention for local businesses put on by the RNC’s nonpartisan Milwaukee Host Committee late last year.” They then stated on their social media, they were asked by the committee to prepare cookies for the conference.

Posting the cookies on their social media, the caption read, “The RNC is only three weeks away. Let’s make Milwaukee proud!” The business finished the caption by stating, “No political comments please.”

That didn’t work out the way the business’ owners had hoped.

The U.S. Supreme Court last Wednesday rejected a challenge to the federal government’s coercion of social media companies to censor speech it doesn’t like.

The court ruled 6-3 in favor of the government.

Justice Barrett wrote the majority opinion for the court; she was joined by two fellow conservatives, Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Kavanaugh, as well as liberal Justices Sotomayor, Kagan and Jackson.

The lawsuit was brought by the states of Missouri and Louisiana, along with five social-media users including Drs. Jay Bhattacharya and Martin Kulldorff — co-authors of the Great Barrington Declaration in 2020 — Jill Hines, Aaron Kheriaty and Jim Hoft.

The individuals and states (i.e., “the Plaintiffs”) allege that the federal government engaged in a widespread censorship campaign during the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2022 Midterm Elections by coordinating with social media companies to stifle content.

U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty had issued a preliminary injunction in favor of the Plaintiffs on July 4, 2023, preventing the government from connecting with social media companies, like Facebook, X, and YouTube, to censor speech.

Judge Doughty had said that if allegations made by the Plaintiffs are true, the case “arguably involves the most massive attack against free speech in United States’ history.”