[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 170 (Monday, November 5, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H12714-H12715]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    CELEBRATING NATIONAL BIBLE WEEK

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Broun) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, 21 years ago in the fall of 1986, 
I found myself sitting on the couch in my medical office in rural south 
Georgia.
  My wife, Nickie, and I had been married a year and we were 
struggling. I had been through several broken marriages, several 
episodes of broken relationships and financial problems because I had 
been living for myself. I'd been living a prideful, sinful, self-
centered lifestyle.
  And as I sat there trying to figure out what life was all about, I 
looked at the table beside the couch upon which I sat, and there was a 
Gideon Bible sitting there, Mr. Speaker. And as I looked at that, I 
remembered a few weeks before I was watching a professional football 
game, and as the cameras panned the crowd, there was a banner hanging 
over a railing up in the stands. And the big banner was there. The 
gentleman had this big rainbow-type of hair wig on, and the banner said 
John 3:16. At that time, it piqued my interest. I asked my wife, 
Nickie, what John 3:16 said, and she didn't know. She wasn't raised in 
a religious household either. We didn't even have a Bible in our home 
to find out.
  As I sat there in my office that fall trying to figure out life, I 
picked up the Bible that was on the table beside the couch, and I 
opened it up and I read John 3:16: For God so loved the world that He 
gave His only begotten Son, that whoever shall believe in Him shall not 
perish but have everlasting life.
  I remembered just a few weeks before sitting on a dock and telling my 
wife that I didn't believe there was any afterlife, that I did not 
believe that there was a God, that I did not believe that we had 
anything beyond this life besides just how people remembered us or 
through our own kids.
  But when I read John 3:16 that day, as a scientist, as a medical 
doctor, my heart was pricked, and I just prayed out and openly and 
said, God, if you're real, I want you to come into my life; I want you 
to show me that you're real. And as a scientist, I had to have proof, 
and God really came into my life and He has changed my life.
  He's given me a stability in life that comes from no other source 
than having the Lord Jesus Christ as one's own personal Lord and 
Savior, and I accepted Him that day in November of 1986. My wife was 
saved independently just a few months after that.
  She and I have been married 22 years now. We have a relationship that 
can come from no other source, from being based in God's inherent word 
and have learned over the years that the Holy Bible is true, it's 
literal, and it's God's direction to us. I call it the manufacturer's 
handbook. It directs every aspect of life.
  God ordained three social entities. He ordained the family, He 
ordained the church, and He ordained government. Romans 13:1 is very 
clear about that. The Bible gives us instructions on how to live our 
lives, every aspect of our lives. Each one of those social entities 
God's given its area of responsibility, its area of authority.
  And unfortunately, in our Nation, because of this mistaken idea that 
we're supposed to have a separation of church and State, the family and 
the church have abdicated a lot of its duties over to government. But, 
Mr. Speaker, what we're doing in our society is not according to God's 
instructions.
  In my home, I have two sets of machines, both washer and dryer. One 
set of machines washes and dries my clothes; the other machine washes 
and dries my dishes. Mr. Speaker, if we take our dishes and try to wash 
them in our clothes washers, we're going to have problems.
  And that's what we're doing in our society today, Mr. Speaker, is 
we're trying to do things against God's inherent word. We're trying to 
live our lives according to what seems right in the eyes of man, but 
the scripture is very clear about that.
  In Proverbs, we read that there is a way that seems right now as a 
man but its path is the way of death, and it's going to be the death of 
freedom. It's going to be the death of our society. It's going to be 
the death of our Republic unless we turn back to what our Founding 
Fathers very firmly believed.
  Mr. Speaker, I believe in the Constitution as James Madison and 
company meant it to be. I carry a copy in my pocket. We've left this 
document, the great Constitution, as James Madison meant it as how we 
run our government, how we run our lives publicly.
  During this time when we're celebrating National Bible Appreciation 
Week, I call on my colleagues to read the Bible, to read the 
Constitution, read what our Founding Fathers who were Bible-believing 
Christians believed, that every aspect of life should follow the 
dictates of God's inherent Word.

[[Page H12715]]

  That's what I believe in. That's what we all should believe in, and I 
just praise the Lord Jesus Christ who came into my life that November 
day. And He saved my life for all of eternity, and I'm living an 
eternal life today, and He's given me a stability.
  Our country is founded on those principles. Our Constitution's 
written on those principles that God gives us in His Word.
  So I rise today to support Him first and foremost and support the 
Bible as the basis of our Nation. I look forward to serving the Lord 
Jesus Christ.

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