June 24, 2004
America Bless God!
Everywhere I look these days there are billboards, signs, and bumper stickers calling on God to bless America. While these signs and symbols of our country, our patriotism and our faith are encouraging, we have most certainly gotten it backwards.
For decades some Americans have worked tirelessly to remove God, His 10 Commandments and prayer (in any and every form) from our schools and our society. And we have allowed them to succeed to a great degree. We have stood by while those same Americans redefined tolerance, even attempting to shame us into embracing it as well. However, it’s not merely a tolerance of those who are of a different race or creed or religion from ourselves, but a tolerance of things God Himself has deemed detestable in His sight—such as the right of a mother to end the life of her unborn child, the right of doctors to end the life of their patients, and the right of those in same-sex relationships to obtain equal status with God-ordained male/female relationships under the laws of marriage. (Has anyone really read the true story of Sodom and Gomorrah?)
And just look at what we have done to the institution of marriage! What God ordained as a lifelong commitment, we have made into a mockery, hopping from one marriage to another, even undermining the sanctity of marriage by embracing “extramarital affairs” and insisting that sex outside of marriage is as acceptable as breathing.
Have we even noticed all the nice, socially acceptable words we have acquired for what God calls sin? …Abortion, euthanasia, sexual orientation, extramarital affairs, promiscuity… Likewise—to our shame—the term “sin” has been rejected by our society. Yet in our arrogance, when the going gets tough, Who do we call on to bless us?
Our public school system has taken it upon itself to teach the theory of evolution as fact, even scoffing at anyone who dares to believe in Creationism. It has so re-written the history books as to have successfully erased the faith of our founding fathers — a faith in the God of the Holy Bible. As though that is not enough, we as a society have decided that the God of our forefathers was too narrowly defined. So we have taken it upon ourselves to redefine “God,” watering down the One True God, making Him small and accessible and comfortable. We have, in our “brilliance,” determined that “God” should be whoever we want Him to be—or worse yet, that we ourselves are gods. So what we have truly done is to turn our focus from the Creator to the created—worshiping trees and forests and ourselves, or some namby-pamby all-illusive “higher power” that is neither just, nor righteous, nor vengeful….
Someone told me Paul Harvey was the first to say that we, as Americans, have gotten it backwards, and I couldn’t agree with him more. We should not be calling on God to bless us! How can He bless a country that has so blatantly turned its back on Him? No, instead, we need to turn our hearts back to Him—the One True God—and seek to bless Him. As we do that, we won’t even have to ask Him to bless us…. For He joyfully blesses those who seek Him and fear Him. But God said it best in His own words:
…if My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 2 Chronicles. 7:14 (NIV)
So as the birthday of this great country approaches, I pray that we will once and for all set the record straight. I pray that we who are called by God’s name will stop whining and pleading for Him to bless us, and begin to do that which blesses Him. Shout it from the mountaintops! Put it on your car bumper. Hang it from the sign in front of your business or in your shop window. Post it on your front lawn. From every corner of this country, from sea to shining sea, let the sound of freedom ring – and let the voices of God’s people join in harmony calling for America to Bless God!
[Psssst…. Pass it on….]
Other Resources: AmericaBlessGod.com ;
America Bless God - Evangelism Store
[Please pardon my rant....] ;-)
Posted by at June 24, 2004 01:43 PM