"Be you well, John?"
"Yes, Papa, my finger pinched under the awl"
"Give God the glory, and be ye thankful thy finger still sits upon thy hand"
"Yes, Papa."
It is 1651, Boston, Massachusetts. Thomas Butolf is working with his son, John, in the leatherworking shop owned by Thomas. Thomas carefully and patiently instructs John in the making of fine leather goods for gentlemen; the goat leather is imported from Cordoba, Spain, and is rather fragile so great care must be taken not to bruise the fine goatskin. John takes the instruction well and is on his way to become an excellent cordwainer himself, at 13 years of age, John is taking on the responsibilities of a man and expected to take over the family business in a few short years, should he decide to follow his father in this venture. John has many options to explore at this point; his uncles, John Greene and Robert Harding, each own several ships, and trade goods in several ports in the New World as well as overseas in places such as London, the West Indies, the northern areas for seal skins, and occasionally China, for fine silks and exotic teas. And, of course, Cordoba, Spain, for the luxuious goat leathers for Papa's business.
But for now, John is concentrating on cutting the leather carefully to match the pattern for the gloves being made for the Rev. Mr. Cotton. John also has many questions and between cuttings is a good time to ask Papa.
"Papa, eve of last, Grandmama wept as she sewed upon her garment, why be she sad now?"
"Word has come us from London, Grandmama's brother, William, died in the Tower of a fever, awaiting the axe"
"Papa, why had Great-Uncle William not come to the New World with us?"
"William besought to persuade King Charles of purging the Church of England of the foul corruption amid the church fathers and the crown, but to his misfurtune, our cousin, Thomas Butolf, the king's Chaplain, gave more loyalty to his master than to his cousin, betraying him to Lord Chancellor"
"Papa, need we fear King Charles?"
"Nay, my son, for the moment we live free in this wilderness land, but our safety and salvation lay in Almighty God, and our worship of the self-same Person, Jesus Christ, Who is the very breath of our being. We will speak further upon this subject when the pieces are sewn. For now, give God the glory, and work thy hands in manner pleasing our Savior."

This scene was taken from facts in the original records and writings of New England, except for Uncle William, who represented many who sought to purify the church in England, and many who lost their lives for desiring to worship God as they thought honoring to God, and not to the forced and ritualistic manner of the church, which had become a mere political organization. A Thomas Butolf(Buttolph) was a Chaplain to King Charles at this time, but relation to our Thomas Butolf is not known at this time.

Other commssions

Many Christians believe the Great Commission is the main responsibility of the Church, and that all other callings are so far from importance as to hardy be worth a mention, such as to be involved in government, invironmental issues, and the like.
I am still working on just what the genealogy project is all about, and it's purpose, but I do believe, from historical research and Biblical study, that the Church is indeed to maintain righteousness in a society. How many times have we heard someone say they didn't want to be involved in politics because it was such a dirty profession? Or God's kingdoms not of this world so we shouldn't be either. But Scripture says to be in the world, just not of it, to not take on the values of the world. How are we to be salt and light to the world if we don't go out and be involved; rub shoulders with those who are lost as we were at one time; cry and laugh with those who are as we were before Jesus showed His mercy in our lives? Jesus said to let our good works be seen so as to glorify God, but not to give show of good works for our own pride. Scripture says to do good when it is in our power to do it, so how can we sit by and continue to let abortion happen when we have the numbers to demand Washington stop Roe v Wade, and other criminal behavior against innocence? Scripture is adamant and profuse in demanding the protection of the innocent, and curses on those who harm the innocent?
When we let teachers read and interpret scripture for us and not read it ourselves as we commune with Jesus, we miss a tremendous amount of teaching directly from the Holy Spirit, and He does teach us, 1 John 2:27.
We are under a new covenant with Jesus Christ, and not under the law but still required to abide by it in our conduct; the Old Testament is still for our instruction and Daniel, Joseph, David, and more were put in positions of power for the ultimate purpose of spreading God's Word to other nations. What better place to spread the Word of God, to do good works, and glorify God in those good works than in the "dirty" political arena??
Is everyone called to this? Of course not, but it is very clear we are to be involved in maintaining righteousness in our nation because God has said in the New Testement no less than three times to obey the government, and in our form of government "we the people" ARE the government.
With this in mind please listen to this 2-3 minute message by Chuck Colson.

So, just what is purpose of this historical info?

The purpose of this project is not to gather ammunition against those we disagree with, but to help us realize this is not the America we grew up in, to drive us to war on our knees against unrighteousness and unseen enemies that blind people to godliness and unity in society, and to setting free the captives.
It is for understanding the need for becoming informed and involved in our democratic process, which is truly a gift from God that we must never take for granted.
It is for learning about and countering the mistakes of our ancestors, and how to share the love and saving grace of Jesus Christ with those who are bringing about their own destruction and the destruction of civility in our nation.
It is to help us understand who we are as a nation, to learn that sacrificing for the good of others and society is necessary and is what God has called us to.
It is to learn that God is our provider, and faithfully provided for our ancestors; it is to learn how to counter the materialism that is drawing the heart of our society away from God to the comfort of the gifts He gave us, which is called idolatry.
It is to learn what God expects of us, not to be afraid of it, to follow where He leads, and learn to love sacrifice as we see God transform lives through our surrender to His will

Why does the Church need to be involved in the culture?

There is much confusion in the Church about whether we should be involved in the culture, after all, some argue that as the Bride of Christ, as Christians, we are citizens of another kingdom and one that is not of this world. But it is very clear in the New Testament as well as the Old Testament, that it is very much the duty of the Christian to uphold the righteousness of the culture and to do any less is to shirk one's duty to his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
There is, of course, much in the OT concerning God's people in the culture and government; Joesph, Daniel, David, the kings of Israel and Judah; God has very often had His people in positions of authority. But some say, this was OT times but we are now citizens of a heavenly kingdom and our main objective is to preach the gospel. This is only partly true, Jesus Himself tells us how to minister to the people around us in the parable of the sheep and goats(MT 25:34-46), the sermon on the mount, paying taxes(Mt 22:15-21), give to Caesar what is Caesar's such as(but not limited to)taxes, and the Good Samaritan.
Then some say this is not government involvement. Romans has much to say about obeying and honoring the authority in power, Paul uses very strong words here about being subject to the authorities. Verse 7 of chapter 13 says to give what is due the government and certainly God was looking forward to today's form of government when Paul wrote this, for in Paul's day people had little or nothing to say about the way the authorities ran the government but God has given us a very unique and precious gift in our form of government which is "of the people, by the people, and for the people"; we are the government, the people own the government, we hold elections, not for kings, but for representatives who are to do our bidding in Washington. WE are the governing powers of our nation! This means to obey the governing authorities is to be informed and actively sure our representatives are representing us. I Peter 2, Titus 3, and I Timothy 2, also say to submit to the authorities; if we do not keep our government accountable then we are going against scripture. Romans 13:2 says this is rebelling against God!
It is very clear we have let our representatives do as they please, or else have so little involvement that those who care little or nothing for God have come to power in our government. Important issues have have been left to those who do as they please without regard for God or respect for life.
We have walked away from our responsibility to uphold righteousness in our nation and our culture. It is very sobering to consider that we have permitted abortion to continue forty years, God will not let this continue; forty years of listening to the cry of incredible pain, terror, and horror as each child is torn apart or burned alive in his mother's womb! Child porn in which a child is subjected to unimaginable humiliation, and sometimes death on film to satisfy some perverted lust. What incredible patience God has had with us as God waits for us to rescue His little ones! The Church, if She would rise up as one and demand this sin in America stop, it would happen! The Church has failed to follow the the traditions of our nation's founders to be the leaders of this great nation, a gift to the world, the holder and distributor of the gospel of Christ; the nation to show the world a Godly culture. But the Church has fallen in love with Her God-given comfort and forgotten Her responsibility.
Ancient Israel was the Apple of His Eye, yet when they sinned He let their enemies rule over them. It is happening again today. We have let a Holocaust happen in the secret place of the womb, I tremble at what we may experience in America if we continue to luxuriate in our comforts over the cries of the children!
May God have mercy, may God waken the Church from Her stupor!
Pray for our nation! Pray for the Church to waken and humble Herself before Her Creator and rescue the children!

Implosion of the Church

A reading of the total of scripture would reveal a drawing of ourselves toward a relationship with God as more intimate than that of simply a servant. Jesus refered to the disciples as friends, God calls the Church His Bride, King David's relationship with his God was closer than that of those who merely saw God as the Law-giver. The law would indicate that David should have died because of his adultery, murder, and cover-up; and Joseph was called a righteous man for not exposing Mary to public shame and probable death when it appeared she had committed fornication; but each of these men were so close to God that they saw the deeper law of mercy in God's heart, and this before Jesus came; this is partly why John 15:5 is so dear to my heart. The other reason this verse is so precious is that I am not content with a distant relationship with God, I hunger for something closer to Him, to know Him so that I can talk to Him and hear Him answer in my heart, to sense His presence and follow His leading regardless of where He leads. This is why I can be relatively content with my life not being my own in my present circumstance. I see so many things I could have done with my life, but know this is where God put me and it is the best place for me.
God calls us to step outside of our own desires and do the best for those around us, natural human nature desires and demands self-fulfillment, but God requires us to deny that selfishness and demonstrate love as He did, and the definition of love as shown by Jesus is to do the best for another regardless of the personal cost!! Talk about high standards! That is how our ancestors lived, if they lived well!! The Buttolph's and those they closely associated with gave their all for family and community, they wore themselves out for the good of others! Reading Laura Ingalls Wilder(a very close contempory of Emma Buttolph) gives a good view of what it took to build a community from scratch, from nothing but their hands and what little material they could find, and how hard they worked for each other and others!
Our society, the media, lulls us into a stuper of self-consuming selfishness and it is really hard to shake off, and I guess this brings us right back to the Church and the desperate need to pray for Her before She dies of implosion!! Self-gratification results in implosion and explosion to others!